The story of the life and work of Oren B. Cheney, founder and first president of Bates college

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THE STORY

LIFE AND WORK

OF

OREN B. CHENEY

Founder and First President
o F

Bates College

EMELINE BURLINGAME-CHENEY

Published for Bates College by the
Morning Star Publishing House
Boston, Massachusetts, '.' '.' 1907

I AM GLAD YOU ARE WRITING THE LIFE OF THIS
ONE OF THE BEST MEN I EVER KNEW.

SI NCERELY

WM. P. FRYE.

To All Who have Been Blessed By His

UIFE AND WORKS.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I Ancestry ; Boyhood . . . i

II Conditions in Country and Church n

III School; Relation of Early Free-Will

Baptists to Education ; Parsons-
field Seminary; First School
Temperance Society ; Religious
Experience . . . .19

IV The Young Teacher ; College Life ;

Baptism ; Opposition to Religious
Service in School House ; Work
for the Indians ; Sunday Serv-
ices ; "Male and Female
Created He them " . . .29
V Teacher ; Marriage ; Parsonsfield —
Teacher — Preacher ; First Ser-
mon ; Whitestown ; Theological
Student — Teacher ; Death of Mrs.
Cheney ..... 43
VI Christian Politician ; Pastor — Leb-
anon ; Lebanon Academy ; Au-
gusta ; Legislature; A New
Home Life • • • • 53

VII Augusta Pastorate ; Political Activ-
ity ; Official Position ; Editorial
Contributor to the Morning Star 67

CHAPTER PAGE

VIII The Vision ; Maine State Semi-
nary ; Difficulty in Securing a
Charter ; Location in Lewiston ;
Charles Sumner Furnishes a
School Motto; Letters from
Charles Sumner . . . 83

IX General Conference in Maineville,
Ohio ; Political Excitement ;
Stirring Incidents ; Plans for
Raising Money for the Seminary ;
Children's Offering . . . 101
X Opening of Maine State Seminary ;
First Year's Success ; Financial
Panic; Brighter Days . .111
XI Contemporary Events; College
Needed ; Opposition Defined ;
Benjamin E. Bates Promises
Fifty Thousand Dollars ; Trust-
ees vote in Favor of a College
Class ; Professor J. Y. Stanton
Elected Teacher . . .121

XII Early College Days ; Co-Educa-
tion ; Interwoven Incidents . 141

XIII President Cheney visits John
Storer ; Mr. Storer gives Ten
Thousand Dollars for a Freed-
men's School ; Harper's Ferry
Selected as the Location ; G. H.
Ball, D.D., a Valuable Helper ;
Rev. N. C. Brackett Secures a

CHAPTER

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

Charter ; First Bates Commence-
ment i57

Important Beginnings ; Effect of
Civil War on Status of Women :
The Baptist Union . . .167

Success ; Disaster ; Difficulties Sur-
mounted ; After Ten Years ; A
Character Sketch . . 1 7 7

Vacation Experience ; Presiding

Officer ; Letter by L. W. Anthony 187

Death of Benjamin E. Bates ; Sec-
ond European Trip ; Delegate to
English Baptists ; Wine-Drinking
Incidents 193

Free Baptist Centennial ; Ocean

Park ; College Extension Plan . 205

Efforts for Christian Union ; Plans
for More Effective Missionary
Work ; Bereavement . . .211

Faculty for Miscellaneous Work ;
College Development ; Student
Testimonials ; Catholicity and
Cosmopolitan Character of Bates ;
The Student Body . . .219

New England Free Baptist Associa-
tion ; General Conference Incor-
porated ; General Conference at
Harper's Ferry ; President
Cheney Moderator ; His Politi-
cal Sagacity .... 235

CHAPTER

XXII Ex-President Cheney ; Important
Plans Uncompleted ; Home Com-
panionship ; Testimonial Ban-
quet ...... 241

XXIII The Sunset Slope ; A Surprise Party ;

California Trip ; At Home in
Lewiston . . . . .255

XXIV Reflected Sunshine ; Bates Round

Table Celebrates Dr. Cheney's
Eighty-Seventh Birthday; At
Rest . . . . . .271

After-word 279

Fore-word

When, at the request of the Trustees of Bates
College, I entered upon the work of telling the
life-story of Oren B. Cheney, it was with loving
appreciation of the twelve years of congenial com-
panionship that had given me such an insight in-
to his character, and with deep gratitude for the
blessings that had come to my life, through influ-
ences exerted by the organizations originated, or
made more effective through his efforts.

If " truth is stranger than fiction " real lives
must embody more of interest than imaginary
ones, and biographies should have a keener
interest than works of the imagination. Lives are
made up far more of small and apparently unim-
portant events than of great ones ; and yet most
biographies move with stately tread along beaten
highways, or ascend heights for wide views, ignor-
ing the forest retreats where flowers grow, taking
no note of the pebbles and mosses in the by-paths.

In this life-story, I have so interwoven little,
daily occurrences with important events that what
may seem trivial to the reader is sometimes pre-
sented with more minuteness than is used in tell-
ing of plans or events generally denominated
great ; but it is with the purpose of giving better
insight into the character portrayed, and of bring-
ing the reader into more sympathetic touch with
his personality.

FORE-WORD

I am conscious of the impossibility of truly re-
producing a life-history, but, as from treasured
rose-leaves there continues to be diffused an
aroma that suggests the fragrance of the rose, so
these pages may at least give to the reader the
essence of the life lived.

This is by no means an attempted history of
Bates College, although much is told concerning
its foundation and development. It is left for
other pens to do justice to the faithful, self-sacri-
ficing co-workers, who helped bring the College to
its present degree of usefulness.

In what is said about Free Baptists, the reader
must realize that this is the story of one man's
relation to the denomination, without any attempt
to do adequate justice to other workers who were
his associates.

I wish to express appreciation for the help
received from the many friends who have given
me facts, and especially for invaluable assistance
from the Associate Committee, President G. C.
Chase, LL.D., and Prof. A. W. Anthony, D.D.

E. B. C.

LETTER FROM EDWARD EVERETT HALE

In an address, delivered at Ocean Park, Maine,
in August, 1907, Mrs. L. M. N. Stevens, President
of the National Woman's Christian Temperance
Union, referred to Bates College, with hearty com-
mendation of its healthy moral tone ; and also told
about hearing Edward Everett Hale speak publicly
with high appreciation of its work.

Wishing to obtain Mr. Hale's direct statement,
the author of this book wrote him and received in
reply the following letter:

Boston, Mass.
Dear Mrs. Cheney:

I have often found occasion to refer to the
noble and self-sacrificing work of your husband
in founding Bates College and also to the large
and valuable place which the College is filling in
the educational world.

Wherever one goes in the east or west he comes
in contact with the good work being done by Bates
graduates.

More than once in traveling in the West, have
I lighted upon a high school or academy where I
have been interested in the moral tone of the
school, and on inquiry have found that one of
your boys was at the head of it.

Thanking you for writing me,

Yours sincerely,

Edw. E. Hale.
Sept. 9, 1907.

Abigail Cheney
Mother of Oren B. Cheney

Moses Cheney
Father of Oren B. Cheney

ANCESTRY
BOYHOOD

On the tenth of December, 1816, while a snow-
storm was raging without, in a modest, but com-
fortable home, in a quiet New Hampshire village,
a blue-eyed baby boy opened his eyes and caught
his first glimpse of life.

On December twenty-second, 1903, those eyes
closed on earthly scenes and a few days later a
stately form was laid at rest. The life lived and
the influence exerted in the years that bridge
these dates will be the theme of this book.

Heredity is of uncertain value. Men that have
honored themselves and their country have
changed their names, because of the stigma des-
cending from unworthy ancestors. Others, whose
lives are insipidly weak, show an overweening
pride in tracing their line of descent back to noble
or heroic characters. Yet the man is not living
who would not rejoice in an honorable ancestry.

Oren Burbank Cheney was born of sturdy New
England stock, in which the religious element had
been strongly developed through several genera-
tions. A high type of character distinguished his
forebears on both his father's and mother's side.

His father, Moses Cheney, was stately and dig-
nified in form, conscientious in every act and
thought, and seemed the embodiment of true man-
hood. He served God and never forgot that man

LIFE AND WORK OF

was his brother. He held important offices in
church and state and was several times a member
of the state legislature. He also held the unpop-
ular position of conductor on the Underground
Railroad and helped flying fugitives on their way
to liberty. About the time of Oren's birth, Dea-
con Cheney, in company with his cousin, went
into the paper manufacturing business, at Holder-
ness, now Ashland, New Hampshire. For this his
experiences as apprentice and workman had
afforded a thorough preparation. The paper-mill
of " Cheney and Morse " — the name by which the
firm was best known — was one of the first built in
New Hampshire. Their paper was sold not only
near home, but in Portland, Boston and New
York.

Oren's mother, Abigail (Morrison) Cheney,
from Sanbornton, New Hampshire, was a woman
of great energy and strength of character. She
became the mother of eleven children, of whom
ten reached maturity. All of these have honored
her by their characters and lives. Her impress
upon Oren was such that everything connected
with her memory ever had a sacred association
for him. Many a Bates student remembers that
President Cheney, in the midst of receptions at
his home, would cause a hush in the jollity and,
lifting a worn leather-covered bible, would say,
perhaps with tears in eyes and voice : " This was
my mother's bible."

OREN B. CHENEY

Visitors at President Cheney's summer home at
Ocean Park, will remember how, in his later years,
he fondly called attention to an old chair, saying,
" That was mother's chair. She used it as long as
she lived."

In the control of her children, Mrs. Cheney was
not only kind, but firm. Of the home life the
youngest daughter says : " Our family attachments
were very strong. There was harmony in our
home, and to do right was the lesson taught us."

It was a very hospitable home into which the
blue-eyed baby came. Frederick Douglass made
it his resting place when in the vicinity. Among
welcome guests was Harriet Livermore, a preacher,
a woman of marked and unusual characteristics,
referred to by Whittier in the evening scene in
" Snow-Bound."

Deacon Cheney and his wife were Free-Will
Baptists, and ministers and others of that faith
always knew that they would be made welcome in
their home. Affairs of state, religion and reform
were freely discussed and Oren absorbed an
interest in them from babyhood. In this typical
home the boy developed.

BOYHOOD PICTURES

In order to understand character, we must
observe its traits in their earliest development.
One of our first glimpses of the boy, Oren, is of a
little tot, running as fast as his feet would carry

6 LIFE AND WORK OF

him to the mill-pond, not far away. Mother's
remonstrances proving unavailing, she followed
him one day, unobserved, and ducking him
suddenly into the water, gave an effectual check
to his love of travel.

A little older, we see him tenderly caring for his
sisters, or wiping his mother's dishes.

Next, a sturdy little youngster is picking up
chips for his uncle, at a penny a basket, sometimes
going home with twelve cents in his jacket pocket.

When Oren was eight years old, one of the first
Sunday schools in that part of New Hampshire
was started at Holderness, by William Green,
cashier of the Plymouth bank. Oren's parents
were severely criticised for allowing him to attend
but they were not afraid of institutions because
they were new, but sought rather to know if they
were good. In seeking the influences that were
developing Oren, one should note that his Sunday
school teacher was Nathaniel Peabody Rogers, so
well known in connection with the anti-slavery
movement. He was an able lawyer and editor of
the " Herald of Freedom," the brightest of the
anti-slavery papers. That Sunday school still sur-
vives as a flourishing part of the present Free
Baptist church at Ashland.

One day, when Oren was ten years old, while all
alone in a retired place, stung by the taunts of
playmates that he dare not swear, he said aloud,
with much emphasis, "I will swear! Devil!"

OREN B. CHENEY

Frightened and conscience-stricken by his daring
sin, he was never tempted to profanity again. "I
never swore but once," he would often say with a
peculiar twinkle in his eyes.

At another time, rankling under the sneers of
playmates because he had to take care of his
younger sisters, he said to his mother, " When I
am twenty-one I will do as I please." With flash-
ing eyes the mother replied : " You will mind me,
if you are as tall as a meeting-house." "And I
did," was his familiar comment.

Two years later Oren had an interesting boyish
experience in going to a General Training of the
State Militia. Before light he tallowed his shoes
and with high anticipations and nine-pence in his
pocket he saw the day dawn. But, alas, some
pretty girls wore bright calico dresses, such as he
had never seen before, and his homespun garments
abashed him !* He spent his nine-pence for honey
and gingerbread, the greatest available luxuries,
and ate enough of the former to last him a life-
time.

That he was not yet ready to yield himself to
the requirements of a Christian life is shown by a
home incident. David Marks, a prominent Free-
will Baptist Evangelist, was visiting in the
Cheney home and was sitting one evening in the
chimney corner, reciting to his wife a lesson, for

*Cotton mills were just beginning to produce calicoes and
other goods, which superseded the homespun materials.

LIFE AND WORK OF

her education was much better than his. When
the lesson was finished, while a comfortable glow
from the crackling fire pervaded the room and the
candles sputtered sympathetically, " Elder " Marks
talked to Oren about being a Christian. In order
to make a show of indifference, the boy cut a
notch in the window-sill with his jack-knife, but
the words cut a deeper notch in his conscience,
and made an impression which was never erased,
although not then heeded.

Oren early began to work in his father's paper
mill. The method of manufacturing paper has so
changed, that, in order to understand this part of
the boy's experience, we insert Dr. Cheney's
reminiscence, written when he was over eighty
years old.

" In those days paper was made of rags,
not of straw and wood as now. It was made
by hand, sheet by sheet. The wonderful
machines which now roll paper off by hun-
dreds of yards and cut it into sheets of any
size needed were yet to be. In the old time,
after the rags were ground into pulp, the pulp
was dipped into a vat of water, pailful by
pailful, as needed to make the mixture of
right condition for use. The size of the sheet
to be made was indicated by the mold. This
was a kind of sieve to let the water go
through and leave the pulp in the compact
form of the sheet. The vat-man, after giving
the right drainage and shake, sent it to the
couchman for being couched. This consisted

OREN B. CHENEY 9

in turning the mold over upon the felt or
cloth, which was a little larger than the sheet.
Thus the pile grew, first a felt, then a sheet
and so on until all the felts were used, over a
hundred in number ; next the press (moved by
hand or water power) was applied, by which
as much water as possible was pressed out,
and then came the work of the lay-boy, which
was carefully to separate the sheets from the
felts and pass the latter back to the couch-
man. The felts often needed washing. This
was clone in well-soaped hot water by the
couchman ; but they were not fit for use until
rinsed in cold water, which was done by the
lay-boy, stooping on a plank on his knees
over the running water that came from the
wheel-pit. As lay-boy I have rinsed felts
when icicles formed on my sleeves.

I was very young when put into the mill
as lay-boy and filled the position for several
years. Father furnished the paper on which
the Morning Star and other early Free-Will
Baptist publications were printed. It is a
pleasant remembrance to me that I handled
sheet by sheet, for several years, the paper on
which all our denominational life expressed
itself.

I was not only lay-boy by day, but often
by night I tended the engine, as the machine
was called, in which the rags were ground.
How life would stretch out before me with
its castles, its dreams and its plans, as I
spent those long nights of boyhood in the old
mill alone. The fifty cents a night received
for my labor seemed a large sum on which to
build something for the future. My services

10 LIFE AND WORK OF

in the daytime were, according to custom,
claimed as my father's right."

That Oren was a trustworthy boy is shown by
his being often sent by his father on important
business — always walking — to the Plymouth bank,
five miles away. He sometimes carried on these
errands several hundred dollars in his jacket
pocket.

CONDITIONS

IN

COUNTRY

AND
CHURCH

II

When Oren was born, James Madison was near-
ing the close of his second term as President.
But one year had passed since the close of the
war of 1812-1815. The interpretation of the pro-
visions of the National Constitution was still
uncertain and under discussion. Business was
in an unsettled condition. Slaveships were surrep-
titiously, although illegally, unloading their car-
goes at southern ports. Rum was sold by grocers
as freely as molasses. Steam was just beginning
to be applied to navigation and land travel. Any
point beyond the New England and the Atlantic
states was "out west." But little wheat was
raised. In Oren's boyhood, the family occasion-
ally enjoyed the luxury of flour bread and dough-
nuts. Generally the food was of corn meal or
rye and very simple.

CHURCH

Oren B. Cheney was never a sectarian in its
narrow sense, yet he was always so true to the
people of his choice, the Free-Will — afterward
Free — Baptists, that a brief history of their origin
and extension seems necessary as a setting to the
events of his life.

In 1770, as a result of the preaching of White-
field, a resident of New Castle, a small island in
Portsmouth Harbor, New Hampshire, Benjamin

14 LIFE AND WORK OF

Randall, at the age of twenty-one, became an
active Christian. After a careful study of the
Bible, during several years, he found that he
could not agree fully with the teaching of any of
the leading denominations. Believing it to be his
duty to preach, he presented the truth as he under-
stood the bible to teach it, making prominent free
salvation for all who believe, free Communion for
all who love our Lord Jesus Christ, and large
freedom for the individual conscience.

The doctrines of John Calvin were the almost
constant theme of a majority of the pulpits of
New England in those days ; and the creeds had
so much of the "straight-jacket" character that
expression of independent opinions was rare.
When, therefore, Randall began to present the
truth as he discerned it, it was in such contrast to
the general belief of his time, that he was at once
denounced as a fanatic and heretic. Persecution
followed. Mobs gathered around his meeting
places ; tar and feathers were prepared for him,
and he narrowly escaped being killed by brick-
bats. There followed much searching of the
Scriptures, to know if he were right or wrong, with
the result that many accepted his teachings.
They were nicknamed " Freewillers."

In 1779, Randall was called before a Baptist
meeting, to answer for his errors, especially for
not preaching the generally accepted doctrine of
election. As the result of this and subsequent

OREN B. CHENEY 15

trials, fellowship was withdrawn from him and
from all who accepted his beliefs. Then first these
disfellowshipped Christians organized a church of
their order at New Durham, New Hampshire, with
Benjamin Randall as pastor ; and although Ran-
dall never favored the name, they finally permitted
themselves to be called Free-Will Baptists. A
simple covenant was adopted embodying their
belief and based on the Sermon on the Mount.
This was in marked distinction from the intricate,
elaborate creeds of the day. Thus the Free-Will
Baptist denomination had its birth.

For a time, the preaching was mainly by men
of the evangelistic type and in country places,
where independence of thought was greater than
in the cities. The preachers were men of conse-
crated lives, good native ability and especially
gifted as leaders of the common people. The
establishment of many country churches followed,
and from that day to the present, the principles
of this people, through the removal of its repre-
sentatives from their country homes, have been
carried to city churches of different denomina-
tions. How much Free-Will Baptists have con-
tributed towards a simpler faith and broader
Christian charity will never be fully known until
the final summing up of all earthly events.

From the beginning, their great respect for per-
sonal convictions in regard to belief and duty has
prevented distinctions in race or sex. Their early

16 LIFE AND WORK OF

preachers were accustomed, at the close of their
sermons to request any who felt " moved " to do
so, to "add a few words." Women, as well as
men spoke on such occasions, often very impres-
sively. There were a number of women preachers
and evangelists in the denomination during its
first quarter century. That these were not of an
erratic type is shown by the descriptions given of
them.

Of Clarissa H. Danforth, who founded many
churches in New England, it is said :

"She was of a good family and well edu-
cated. She had extraordinary talent and
undoubted piety. Tall in person, dignified
in appearance, easy in manners, she had all
the elements of a noble woman. As a
speaker, her language was ready and simple,
her gestures appropriate. Her voice pene-
trated to the corners of the largest house.
She held hundreds with fixed attention, listen-
ing by the hour to the claims of her heavenly
Master."

David Marks, one of the most successful evange-
lists of his day, gives much credit to Mrs. Humes,
who assisted him, but says she had much to con-
tend with because of the popular prejudice against
women as preachers.

When we remember the belief, at this time, in
some of the leading denominations, that it was
wrong for women to speak even in small social
meetings of the church, and that half a century

OREN B. CHENEY 17

later, Rev. Theodore Cuyler, D.D., was arraigned
before his presbytery for allowing Hannah Smiley
to give bible readings in his pulpit, the mission
of Free Baptists in giving to women the utmost
freedom of their convictions will be more highly
appreciated.

Without tracing further at present the develop-
ment of this young denomination, we may note
that in 1828, when Oren was twelve years old, it
had been organized into seven Yearly Meetings
in six different states, with about four hundred
churches, most of them in country places ; and
that it was admirably adapted, both in its oppor-
tunities and needs, to aid in the development of
Oren's life of usefulness.

In 1826, we see him, as lay-boy, carefully
separating the sheets of paper, that are to contain
the first imprint of The Morning Star, in that year
founded and thenceforward to be the organ of the
Free-Will Baptists. As the printed copy comes
back, week after week, we see the boy eagerly
listening, while one of the " hands " reads from its
pages to the assembled group. In 1827, the date
of the First Free-Will Baptist General Conference,
it is significant to note the interest with which
Oren listens to the reading of the report of the
doings of the religious body, over which, many
years later, he was repeatedly to preside.

SCHOOL

RELATION OF EARLY FREE-WILL
BAPTISTS TO EDUCATION

PARSONSFIELD SEMINARY

FIRST SCHOOL TEMPERANCE SOCIETY

NEW HAMPTON LITERARY INSTITUTION

RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE

Ill

Oren's early school life consisted of a few terms
at a little school kept by his aunt ; a few at the
public school ; and a short time in Dr. Dana's
private school.

When he was thirteen years old, in using a corn-
sheller, he cut off the end of his thumb. Then,
farewell future paper manufacturer ! In the thrifty
Cheney family, there was no time wasted, so while
the injured thumb was healing, the boy was sent
to New Hampton Institute, five miles away. Of
that time Dr. Cheney says, in his reminiscences,
" The night before leaving for school, mother
came to my room and, kneeling beside my bed,
prayed for me. I well remember her advice, in
view of the dangers of dawning manhood. No
talisman could have guarded me so securely."

In going temporarily to New Hampton, Oren
little realized that he had reached a turning point
in his life, for as soon as his thumb healed, he
returned to the mill. But, while at New Hamp-
ton, he was under the influence of Hosea Quinby,
a Free-Will Baptist, preparing for college, and also
acting as assistant teacher. Quinby was in-
terested in the promising lad and exerted a power-
ful influence over him not only in school, but later
in his home.

22 LIFE AND WORK OF

RELATION OF EARLY FREE-WILL BAPTISTS TO
EDUCATION

It is sometimes said that, at first, Free-Will
Baptists were opposed to education. In order to
throw light upon their position, let us note that
in those days a college education was almost
entirely limited to young men who were to be
ministers, lawyers or physicians. Free-Will
Baptists in their first third century may be denom-
inated " a voice," protesting against narrowness
in creed, and formality and lack of spiritual power
in the pulpit. It seemed to them that the theo-
logical teaching in the leading denominational
schools was producing a class of " man-made "
ministers, lacking in real spiritual force. The fear
of having such a ministry led to fear of the causes
which they regarded as producing it.

At the same time, Randall, Buzzell and other
denominational leaders were men of sound judg-
ment and good common sense, and hence ready to
be inspired and led by an educated man of tact,
like Quinby. In fact this earnest pioneer found
many supporters among both clergy and laity in
his work of establishing a Free-Will Baptist school.
During his course at Waterville, now Colby
College, Quinby judiciously prepared the way.
John Buzzell gave his hearty support and he and
others raised the money for a seminary building ;
so that after Quinby's graduation, in the fall of

OREN B. CHENEY 23

1832, he opened a Free-Will Baptist school at
Parsonsfield, Maine, known as Parsonsfield Semi-
nary.

Through Quinby's influence, Oren's father was
induced to send the boy there, and in September,
1832, we see him riding on a load of Morning Star
paper, on its way to Limerick, where the Star was
published. The distance to Parsonsfield was forty
miles, and the journey required three days.

Of his experience at that time, Dr. Cheney says
in his reminiscences : " To my boyish vision the
Morning Star was a bright luminary. Now, I was
going to see John Buzzell, the editor. The village
of North Parsonsfield consisted of a single street,
a half-mile in length, lined with neat farmhouses,
the seminary building at one end, Elder Buzzell's
meeting-house at the other, and about half way
between, a store, where dry goods, groceries and
books were sold.

" The meeting-house was of typical New Eng-
land construction, with high pulpit and sounding-
board, square, high-backed pews, gallery all around
and ' singing seats ' in the gallery facing the pulpit.
Dear old house ! Many good men preached a free
gospel in it. A mob once surrounded it, be-
cause there were in it men and women consult-
ing about giving freedom to the slaves. John
Buzzell was an off-hand, earnest, ready speaker.
His theme was generally free salvation as opposed
to Calvinism. He was a good singer. There were

24 LIFE AND WORK OF

sermons in his songs. His hymn-book was among
the earliest Free-Will Baptist publications."

The Parsonsfield school opened with a good
attendance in a neighboring school-house, as the
Seminary building was not quite completed.

Three or four incidents, connected with the
year spent here, throw light upon Oren's develop-
ing character. One day his cousin Elizabeth
expressed to him chagrin because other students
had good meeting-houses in which to worship,
while at their home in Holderness, they wor-
shiped in an old school house. Oren replied with
much emphasis, " When we go home we will have
as good a one as anybody." He kept his word
and soon after their return, there was built on his
father's farm, over a boulder on which he had
often played, the church that has been in use ever
since.

Oren began his temperance record even when a
boy in school, and to explain this, we must go
back a little. In 1830, the first temperance
lecturer visited Holderness and gave an address
to a large audience. When, at its close he asked
for signers to the pledge, Oren's mother and a
foolish lad were the only ones who arose. This
made Mrs. Cheney a butt for ridicule through the
village, but little she cared. She saw a truth.
That was enough. Her home was at once cleared
of all that could intoxicate. No ministers were

OREN B. CHENEY 25

afterwards treated to liquors at Deacon Cheney's
sideboard.

One day, when Oren was at the grocery, a
prominent church member ostentatiously went to
a barrel, drew a glass of rum, sweetened and
stirred it vigorously, then, as he drank it, told the

boy to go home and tell his mother that

drank a glass of rum.

Oren protested to his mother against going to
meeting with such a man, but she replied gently,
" Oh, my boy, he is a good man, but he looks at
things in a different light from what we do."

Mrs. Cheney was a crusader thirty or more
years before the Woman's Temperance Crusade
started. Knowing that a temperance measure
was to be acted upon at a town meeting, Mrs.
Cheney and some other women went with their
knitting work to the town hall and, uninvited, sat
there knitting, knitting while the measure was dis-
cussed.

The men voted by ranging themselves on
opposite sides of the room. One man started to
go to the side representing the liquor interest, but
seeing the eyes of the women upon him, he hastily
retreated to the other side. The side of temper-
ance prevailed and the women went home happy.

These early influences help us to see why, at
Parsonsfield, Oren was a leader in starting a
school temperance society. He was chairman of
the committee on constitution. Another member

26 LIFE AND WORK OF

said to him, " We must have some big words in
it." "What would you suggest?" was Oren's
query. " Well, ' tantamount ' would be good," was
the wise reply. Although the big word did not
get into the constitution, the society flourished
and is believed to be the first school temperance
society in the country that prohibited in its
pledge fermented as well as distilled liquors.

Oren belonged to a family of good singers and
from a child had an excellent voice. At Parsons-
field he felt himself suddenly some inches taller
when invited to the "singing seats."

He always remembered with amusement one
Sunday's experience. In the gallery, at his right
sat a boy with uncommonly red hair. Just behind
him a sober looking lad attracted much attention,
at an important stage of the sermon, by holding
his outstretched palms near the fiery hair, then
rubbing them together as in process of warming
them. The preacher must have wondered what
there was in his sermon that could excite so many
smiles in the "choir loft." As fires were not used
in meeting-houses in those days, except in foot-
stoves for women, there was a quaint appropriate-
ness in the boy's act.

About this time, the young Free- Will Baptist
denomination began to awaken to the duty of
foreign missionary work. In 1832, Buzzell,
Quinby and others interested held a meeting in
the Buzzell meeting-house to inaugurate the work.

OREN B. CHENEY 27

Oren heard of it and went, an interested listener
to the plans which resulted in the formation of the
society of which later he was for many years
Recording Secretary and afterward President.

The year spent at Parsonsfield was in many
ways a fruitful one in Oren's development. He
had in Hosea Quinby not only an excellent
teacher, but an inspiration to the best manhood.
In being under the ministry of John Buzzell,
Benjamin Randall's successor, he came in close
relation to the beginnings of the denomination to
whose development he afterward contributed so
much. But it was inconvenient to be so far from
home, and the next year he entered New Hampton
Literary Institution, at New Hampton, New
Hampshire, which at that time was a Baptist
school, and there finished his preparation for
college.

Previous impressions as to duty had been
maturing and while at New Hampton, fully decid-
ing to give himself to the service of God and his
fellow-men, Oren kneeled in a retired pasture, and
with sincere prayer and pledge, consecrated his
life to Christian service. To the vows then made
he was ever true.

THE YOUNG TEACHER

COLLEGE LIFE

BAPTISM

OPPOSITION TO RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN
SCHOOL HOUSE

WORK FOR THE INDIANS

SUNDAY SERVICES

"MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE
THEM"

IV

During his New Hampton course, in 1834, he
taught one term of the Holderness village school.
An incident which occurred here showed that
Oren already possessed the elements of a firm,
brave teacher. One day a drunken father entered
the school-room, flourishing an ox goad, and
accusing the youthful teacher of punishing his
boy, thus throwing the school into a panic.
Nothing daunted, Oren took a ruler over his
shoulder and marching up to the man, eyed him
keenly and soon quieted him. The frightened
children then returned to their seats.

At New Hampton, Oren did good work and
when he graduated was well fitted for college.
Through influences exerted while there, Oren was
led in the fall of 1835, to enter Brown University,
President Wayland's reputation being an especial
inducement.

In going to Brown he took his first car rides,
from Lowell to Boston, then from Boston to
Providence, thus traveling over two of the three
railroads in the country. To the eager hearted
lad it seemed the greatest event in his life.

The term spent at Brown was full of oppor-
tunities for development, not only in college life,
but in city and state. With his love of seeing
noted places it did not take Oren long to find the

32 LIFE AND WORK OF

various points of historic interest, prominent
among them being the landing place of Roger
Williams and his associates.

This was the year when Garrison was mobbed
in Boston and the mob-spirit entered Rhode
Island. Hearing that a meeting of anti-slavery
women was to be broken up, Oren was on hand to
observe the exciting scenes. But the spirit of
Roger Williams was there also. The mayor dis-
persed the crowd. Rhode Island's reputation for
religious liberty was maintained. But the indig-
nation that thrilled young Cheney as he noted
the spirit of the mob made him an out-and-out
abolitionist, and from that time he lost no oppor-
tunity to do all he could by voice and pen for the
emancipation of the slaves.

Hearing that at Dartmouth College anti-
slavery sentiments were allowed more freedom of
expression than at Brown, influenced also by
family and financial considerations, with a letter
of recommendation from President Wayland, our
young student after one term at Brown, returned
to his parents' new home at Peterboro, New Hamp-
shire, and, in the following spring enrolled him-
self as a student at Dartmouth College.

He soon after accepted an invitation to teach
the winter school at Canaan. At just that time
this village was the center of anti-slavery interest,
for near the district school house there had stood,
a few weeks before, a fine Academy ; but news

O. B. Cheney

About 1845

OREN B. CHENEY 33

having spread that " niggers " were attending this
Academy, some of the townspeople, at night, with
their oxen drew the building a mile away and left
it in a swamp.

As a curiosity in literature and an illustration
of the spirit of the times, we append the following
extract from a speech delivered to a crowd that
gathered in a Canaan church at the conclusion of
this notorious act : '

"The work is done, the object obtained.
The contest has been severe but the victory
glorious. No sable son of Africa remains to
darken our horizen. The abolition monster
who ascended out of the bottomless pit is
sent headlong to perdition, and the mourners
go about the streets. You, gentlemen, who
have assisted us in obtaining this glorious
victory, in behalf of the inhabitants of this
town, I present to you my sincere and hearty
thanks for your prompt attention and unex-
ampled exertions in repelling an enemy far
more to be dreaded than the pestilence that
walketh in darkness and the destruction that
wasteth at noonday. May the sun of liberty
continue to shine on you with increased
splendor and never be obstructed by the
sable clouds of Africa ; and should it be your
misfortune to be again invaded by a similar
foe, we pledge ourselves to unite our exertions
with yours in putting down by all lawful
means every plot that threatens the subver-
sions of our liberties, or disturbs the public
tranquility.

34 LIFE AND WORK OF

" May that Being that presides over the
destinies of Nations reward you a hundred
fold in this life, and in the life to come life
everlasting."

Dr. Cheney tells this story of his experience in
going there :

" A young Baptist minister took me by
horse and sleigh to Canaan on Saturday. We
arrived at the house of the agent of the school
early in the evening. As we sat at the tea-
table, and afterwards before the fire, the whole
story was told by the agent of the bringing
of ' niggers ' into town and of the driving
them out, with the words added in strong
emphasis, ' We will not have an abolitionist
teach our school.'

" As my friend left me that evening, I fol-
lowed him to the door and said, ' What shall
I do ? I am an abolitionist. I cannot teach
the school here.' 'O,' said he, 'say nothing
about it. It will never be known what you
are.'

" Taking his advice I began the school.
Everything went on in silence and pleasantly
for about three weeks. But the silence was
on my part. The town was discussing the
question, ' On which side is the master ? '
I saw the mistake I had made in listening
to the advice given me. I could not endure
such a non-committal life, and in a quiet
way I let my anti-slavery principles be known.
The whole town was thrown into excitement
as the news spread. The joy of the abo-
litionists, few in number, can hardly be told.

OREN B. CHENEY 35

The opposition let me alone, and I finished
the school term.

" It may be well to add that among the
colored students driven out of town by the
removal of the academy, was one who became
a lecturer in the anti-slavery field, and a
pastor in a colored church in Washington,
D.C."

In the spring of 1836 Oren entered Dartmouth
College. There was much in the spirit of this
school, founded as a missionary enterprise for the
education of the Indians, that strongly appealed
to the youth. In a little enclosure on the campus
is the grave of Eleazer Wheelock, the founder of
Dartmouth College. The place had a strange
fascination for the new student, and as he often
meditated by it, undefined possibilities in his own
future took intangible form.

But his life was far from gloomy. Professor
John Fullonton, who entered college the next
autumn, told his daughter, Ida, in later years, that
when he crossed the campus for the first time, he
heard voices ringing out harmoniously across the
yard. Looking up, he saw several young men
sitting in the window and singing the church
hymns then in vogue, and one of them, as he
learned later was O. B. Cheney. "That window,"
said Dr. Fullonton impressively, " faced the east
and Oren Cheney has faced the rising sun ever
since." On entering college, he was at once
invited to sit in the "singing seats."

36 LIFE AND WORK OF

The habits of economy, with which he had been
reared, governed Cheney's life while in college.
He and his classmate, G. G. Fogg, experimented
at boarding themselves. Evidently, neither was
an adept at cooking. They lived on a concoction
of Indian meal, cold water, salt and saleratus —
calling it a johnnycake — with the result that Oren
fell sick and never afterward could bear the taste
or even the smell of saleratus.

The young reformer was now in a sympathetic
anti-slavery atmosphere. At one time he went
with a company of students to a town near by, to
hold an anti-slavery meeting in a beautiful grove,
where a large audience had gathered. Dr.
Cheney's reminiscences describe the events thus :

" Early in the meeting the place was sur-
rounded by a crowd of men and boys with
drums and horns for the purpose of making a
disturbance. But we made the grove ring
with anti-slavery songs, the speakers kept
right on and the meeting proved a great
success. We returned to college with flying
colors, feeling quite as happy as any of the
baseball or elocutionary victors of today.

" Boys of twenty-one years of age living in
Hanover were then allowed to vote, and when
it was found that our votes were cast in the
interest of anti-slavery, the legislature de-
cided that if we voted we must perform mili-
tary duty. 'All right,' was our reply, and
forthwith a company was organized with a
senior for captain and other officers from the

OREN B. CHENEY 37

other classes. We secured a competent drill
master and prepared for the next general
training at Lebanon, which occurred on a
beautiful day.

"With officers in fine uniforms, the rank and
file in black coats and white pants, armed
with bright new muskets, we marched beneath
the folds of a beautiful new flag that had
been presented to us, to the music of a first-
class band, secured from a distance at much
trouble and expense. Some of the other com-
panies were not in uniform and had only
drum and fife accompaniment, and we com-
pletely captivated the admiring crowds that
thronged our line of march. The waving of
handkerchiefs by women, young and old, and
the cheers of the crowd showed how great
was the victory we had won over the pro-
slavery spirit that had thought to crush us.
I was told that the accident to my left hand
would exempt me from military duty, but I
wanted to enjoy the fun and so I was in it
with the other boys."

BAPTISM

Oren's religious life had been steadily devel-
oping after entering Dartmouth ; and feeling
impressed that he ought to be baptized, in May,
1836, he walked to his old home in Ashland, forty
miles away — to ride would cost too much — was
baptized by Rev. Simeon Dana, and united with
the Free-Will Baptist church then worshiping
in the house that he had helped to build. During

LIFE AND WORK OF

the return tramp, his thoughts were occupied with
high purposes and noble resolves.

The following winter he again augmented his
finances by teaching school at Peterboro. Hav-
ing an earnest desire to benefit his students in
every way possible, he held a series of prayer-
meetings at the close of the school exercises,
inviting all who would to remain. This did not
please a prominent business man in the place, who
requested the teacher to desist. It would not
have been Oren Cheney, had he yielded.

His opponent then called a district meeting.
He had a large number of men in his employ and
the school-house was crowded. The whole town
was stirred. After a long discussion, a resolution
was passed by one majority, in opposition to the
teacher's course. Amid a deathlike silence, the
stripling of twenty years calmly arose and quietly
informed the audience that he held his position
by vote of the school committee and should leave
only at their request — that he had conscientious
convictions about the matter and could not dis-
continue the service.

The school committee voted unanimously to
sustain him, one of them, not a church member,
saying that such a service was what every district
needed. Young Cheney was called back to the
same district the next winter, and to another
school in the same town the year following.
Seven years later this opponent of the student

OREN B. CHENEY 39

teacher came near being defeated as candidate
for governor of New Hampshire, by the use against
him of these circumstances of which others had
learned and had published in a campaign docu-
ment.

WORK FOR THE INDIANS SUNDAY SERVICES

Although, in the seventy-five years that had
passed since the founding of Dartmouth College,
the Indians had been pressed back by the
advance of civilization, a company of them, men,
women and children, used annually to encamp for
several months in the Vale of Tempe, a short dis-
tance away. They were treated with the greatest
kindness by the college authorities and students,
no pains being spared to educate them. During
a part of his college course, Oren went daily with
a classmate to the camp-ground and taught the
Indian boys and girls, neither expecting nor
receiving any remuneration for the service. The
fact that this classmate, a Southern young man,
was paying his college expenses from the proceeds
of the sale of a slave girl, furnishes an interesting
comment on human consistency.

Later in his college course Oren found a small
Free-Will Baptist interest at Grantham, ten miles
away. Here he rendered services for many
months, generally walking the twenty miles;
going Saturday and leading a prayer meeting in
the evening, on Sunday giving talks to a people

40 LIFE AND WORK OF

not able to employ a regular pastor ; conducting a
Sunday school and teaching a singing school —
all this without any remuneration. His oppor-
tunity to render needed service was his ample
reward, while to his last hours he was cheered by
the loving regard of those whom he then served.

Among the pleasant homes where he was
welcomed during his college life was that of the
Bridgman family and he became deeply interested
in the eight-year-old Laura, the blind, deaf and
dumb child afterward so noted.

Throughout his college course Oren Cheney did
good, faithful work in his classes. He always had
a kindly remembrance of President Lord's interest
in him. His class, which numbered about seventy
on entering, graduated with sixty-one members.
Oren outlived all but four.

Our readers will probably agree that few young
men graduate from college with a better all-
around equipment for service than Oren B.
Cheney possessed, when, at the age of twenty-
three, with diploma in hand, he turned his back
on college halls and faced life.

" MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM "

Mr. Cheney's affections had already been en-
listed in an evident case of love at first sight.
In his reminiscences he tells the story thus :

"While in college, Burbank and I made a

OREN B. CHENEY 41

visit to Parsonsfield Seminary as alumni,
having the honor of being students the first
term of the institution. Receiving an invi-
tation from Miss Woodman, the lady princi-
pal, to visit her classes, we accepted. As we
entered the classroom, a young woman, whom
I had never seen and of whom I had never
heard, was at the blackboard to demonstrate
the forty-seventh proposition in " Playfair's
Euclid," that in any right-angled triangle the
square which is described upon the sides sub-
tending the right angle is equal to the squares
described upon the sides which contain the
right angle.

" I heard her through, asking her a few
questions, as visitors to schools are accus-
tomed to do.

" ' Quod erat demonstrandum ,' she said, on
taking her seat. 'Yes,' to myself I said, 'but
something else remains to be demonstrated !'
Her name was Caroline Adelia Rundlett,
daughter of Capt. James Rundlett of Strat-
ham, New Hampshire."

Acquaintance showed him that he was right in
his first impression that Miss Rundlett was a very
interesting and intellectually superior young
woman. Mutual and abiding affection resulted.

TEACHER

MARRIAGE

PARSONSFIELD — TEACHER — PREACHER

FIRST SERMON

WHITESTOWN

THEOLOGICAL STUDENT— TEACHER

DEATH OF MRS. CHENEY

In the fall of 1839, Mr. Cheney became Princi-
pal of the Farmington (Maine) Academy, with
Miss Rundlett as Preceptress. They were married
January first, 1840, at the bride's home in Strat-
ham, New Hampshire.

There were five terms of successful teaching at
Farmington, during which time the couple
boarded at the home of Rev. John Chaney, pastor
of the church. While here Mrs. Cheney started a
school paper, containing so much of general
interest that after a while it was printed and sub-
sequently became The Farmington Chronicle.

Soon after going to Farmington, Mr. Cheney
learned that a short time before, in the very room
used by his wife and himself, a private meeting
had been held to prepare the way for a Free-Will
Baptist Education Society. Thenceforward the
place was sacred to him, for he clearly foresaw the
far-reaching effects of that meeting. The first
result was the call for a convention, to be held in
Acton, Maine, January 15, 1840. Forty-six
influential names were signed to this call.
Seventy-six men attended. Dr. Cheney wrote of
it in 1896 :

" How well I remember the journey to
Acton. There was not then a railroad in
Maine. Elder Chaney and I went by horse

46 LIFE AND WORK OF

and sleigh. We started on a cold Monday
morning. The first day's journey was to
Gray, the second to Springvale. Wednesday
morning we reached Acton in time for the
Convention, having stopped for entertain-
ment at houses of the brethren by the way,
as was the custom of those days.

" The convention discussed and adopted
seventeen resolutions. The discussion was
lively and the opposition to some of them
strong, but the support was earnest. They
show plainly the struggle in the minds of men
in holding to the old, while reaching forward
to the new. Laymen as well as clergymen
were well represented in the convention, the
President being Hon. J. M. Harper, member
of Congress."

The first result of the organization of the Edu-
cation Society was a library and course of theo-
logical study in connection with Parsonsfield
Seminary. In 1841, Mr. Cheney became Princi-
pal of the Academy at Strafford, New Hampshire.
Failing to receive promised remuneration, he
accepted a position in Greenland, New Hamp-
shire. Here for the first time the young couple
kept house. Here, too, a little son died soon
after birth.

HIS FIRST SERMON

While in Greenland, Mr. Cheney walked several
miles on the Sabbath to Northampton, where Free-
will Baptists had started a small interest. On
one Sunday, the minister failing to appear, Mr.

OREN B. CHENEY 47

Cheney was prevailed upon to preach. He spoke
from the text : "All things are now ready." By
invitation, he preached again the next Sunday.
Then, feeling quite dissatisfied with his efforts, he
resolved never to preach again. But one of the
brethren prophesied such dire future punishment
for him if he did not, that he was led to recon-
sider, and soon after, accepting the counsel of
ministers in that vicinity, he was licensed to
preach.

The same year, Mr. Cheney began to contribute
to the Morning Star the articles 'which continued
to appear with more or less regularity for sixty
years.*

In 1843, Mr. Cheney was called to be Principal
of Parsonsfield Seminary, where eleven years
before he had entered as a pupil.

The Morning Star of June 7, 1843, speaks of
him in the highest terms as instructor and licen-
tiate, for he was not only expected to teach, but
also to preach at Parsonsfield. He also supplied
the pulpit twice a month at Effingham Hill,
near by.

In this locality his anti-slavery sentiments
found many opposers, it being denied that his

*At a session of the Free-Will Baptist General Confer-
ence, held at Topsham, Maine, in 1841, a union was effected
with the Free or Free Communion Baptists in New York,
with the understanding that their denominational names
might be used interchangeably, and the "Will" having
been used less and less since then, we shall drop it in this
biography.

48 LIFE AND WORK OF

statements of cruelty to the slaves were founded
in fact. A branch of the underground railroad
ran through Parsonsfield and thence to the
Canadian border. One day the station keeper in
Effingham brought to Mr. Cheney's home in Par-
sonsfield a woman and two children, fugitives from
slavery. He sheltered and fed them, then arranged
for them to meet parents as well as children at his
school. Here the mother showed the branded
marks on her children's shoulders and other indi-
cations of cruelty. They were sweet singers and
as they sang their weird songs with much pathos
in word and tone, all were moved to tears and the
sentiment of the community was so changed that
Mr. Cheney afterward found few objectors to his
anti-slavery utterances.

Mr. Cheney had now begun to feel that the
ministry was to be his life-work. This led to his
ordination in 1844, the sermon being preached by
Elder John Buzzell, with Benjamin J. Manson and
others participating in the exercises. For his
preaching at Effingham, he received two dollars a
Sunday. After a time one of the members asked
him not to mention the subjects of temperance
and slavery in the pulpit. With all his manhood
flashing from his eyes, Mr. Cheney replied, " A
pile of gold as high as a mountain would not
tempt me to stop speaking upon those questions."
He was at this time much in demand as a lecturer
upon these themes.

OREN B. CHENEY 49

For some time the conviction had been growing
that, if he were to be a minister, he should further
fit himself for the sacred office. The theological
course and library, previously referred to, had,
after various vicissitudes, been removed to Whites-
town Seminary, in New York. To this place Mr.
Cheney removed in 1845 — with his wife and one-
year old son, Horace Rundlett — with the purpose
of taking a theological course, and meanwhile
supporting his family by teaching Latin in the
Seminary. Though his course of study was cut
short, the influence for good which he exerted
while there remained, as attested by the following
reminiscence by a life-long friend, Rev. G. H.
Ball, D.D. :

" I was not connected with the Seminary
department, but recollect that Prof. Cheney
was spoken of as an excellent teacher. We
were in the same class in the Divinity School
with Dr. John Fullonton and Dr. George T.
Day. It was a large class, and of course, the
fact that Day, Fullonton and Cheney were in
it signifies that it was interesting, vigorous
and aggressive. Brother Cheney was admired
and loved by every member of the class as a
scholarly, bright and courteous gentleman.
Personally he was handsome, neat in his
attire and habits, gentle in his manners and
generous, as well as courteous.

" He always took a bright and cheerful
view of every subject discussed in class, in
the literary society and in general intercourse.

50 LIFE AND WORK OF

His social influence among the students was
refining, and, without the least obtrusiveness,
improved the habits of the young men who
had grown up with rude surroundings, and,
on coming to the school, were really in need
of the helpful influence he so quietly exerted.
He was popular with all the students and
looked up to as a model for imitation. He
appeared to me at that period in his life as
nearly perfect in gentility of manner, in
purity and dignity of thought, in courtesy
and kindness in intercourse, in unselfish
devotion to his chosen purpose in life, in
sincerity and strength of interest in the most
advanced undertakings of the denomination,
in generous appreciation of his associates and
in reverent respect for older men, who were
then active among our ministers."

But life plans "gang aft agley." After a few
months, his wife's health failed so rapidly that he
was obliged to carry her back to her father's home
in Stratham, New Hampshire. His sister Sarah,
who was then preceptress at Whitestown Semi-
nary, accompanied him, caring for little Horace.
After some anxious weeks, on January 13, 1846,
Mrs. Caroline R. Cheney peacefully passed on to
the other life. The parting from this capable,
talented companion was a severe blow to her
devoted husband.

Writing in his diary at this time he says :

" How bitter has been the cup I have been

OREN B. CHENEY 51

called to drink! Thirty years of my life
gone ! Where shall I be thirty years to come.
I hope to be in heaven."

But life's work called loudly and he could but
listen and heed.

CHRISTIAN POLITICIAN

PASTOR— LEBANON

LEBANON ACADEMY

AUGUSTA

LEGISLATURE

A NEW HOME LIFE

VI

The Cheney family may be said to possess
political genius. Oren's father and two of his
brothers were members of the New Hampshire
legislature. His brother Person was Governor of
New Hampshire, United States Senator, for a
short time Minister to Switzerland, and for many
years an influential member of the National
Republican Committee. Elias, the youngest
brother, has been Consul to Matanzas, then later
to Curacao. Many other near relatives have
occupied prominent public positions. But no one
of them had a more level head or better political
foresight than Oren.

In 1846 there was an interesting condition in
the country, owing to the agitation caused by the
Wilmot Proviso, a measure before Congress, to
limit the extension of slavery. John P. Hale, a
democratic candidate in New Hampshire for the
United States House of Representatives, was
defeated because he would not consent to have
the clause favoring the Wilmot Proviso taken
from the New Hampshire Democratic platform.

Then came a party split, John P. Hale, Amos
Tuck and George G. Fogg being leaders of the
Independent Democrats. The two latter were
intimate friends of O. B. Cheney. Amos Tuck
had been a Parsonsfield man and had given Mr.

56 LIFE AND WORK OF

Cheney one hundred dollars towards the first ten
thousand raised for the Free Baptist Education
Society. Fogg was Cheney's room-mate both at
New Hampton and Dartmouth. Both of these
men were broad-minded and opposed to slavery.
To advance the interests of the new party Fogg
started the Independent Democrat. When the legis-
lature met there were four parties represented in
it, no one strong enough to control the situation.
Mr. Cheney saw a great opportunity. He laid
a plan and with his usual persistence set about its
development. If he could induce the Liberty
party men, the Independent Democrats and the
Whigs to vote together he saw the possibility of
such a victory as anti-slavery men had not
known. With the men of his own, the Liberty
Party he had powerful influence, also with his
friends among the Independent Democrats, and
he succeeded in influencing leaders among the
Whigs. It was no easy task he undertook. In
the reminiscence he says :

" It was as hard for those Liberty party
men to join hands with those whom they had
considered their bitter opponents as it was
for the Christians at Jerusalem to give kindly
greeting to the persecutor Saul."

But tactful personal influence conquered and
every one yielded. As the result of this union of
forces against the Democrats, John P. Hale was
sent to the United States Senate, Amos Tuck to

OREN B. CHENEY 57

the House of Representatives, and George G.
Fogg was made Secretary of State for New Hamp-
shire. Up to this time, the New Hampshire
Legislature had refused to incorporate the Free
Baptist Printing Establishment, because The
Morning Star, its organ, was so outspoken against
slavery. At this session of 1846, its charter was
readily granted. The country was electrified by
the news from New Hampshire. The South could
hardly believe it possible that an anti-slavery
Senator had been elected. Cool men, like John
G. Whittier, almost went wild over it. Whittier
wrote some verses, quite out of his usual style,
which were published anonymously in the Boston
Chronotype. In these he gives free rein to his
joy by representing one Northern slavery sym-
pathizer as dolefully describing the situation to a
friend. His reference to Free Baptists is as
follows :

" ' Tis over, Moses, all is lost !

I hear the bells a-ringing ;
Of Pharaoh and his red-sea host
I hear the Free Wills singing.
We're routed, Moses, horse and foot

If there be truth in figures ;

With Federal Whigs in hot pursuit

And Hale and all the niggers."

Mr. Cheney continued his good offices in the
political anti-slavery line until after the Free Soil
Party was formed in 1848. There was perhaps

58 LIFE AND WORK OF

no one person, beginning with the circumstances
just referred to, who did more than O. B. Cheney
in bringing about this consummation. But it was
all done with the high purpose of securing the
overthrow of slavery, and caused no swerving from
his life plan ; for we find him seeking no office,
but, true to his convictions of duty, accepting a
call to a country pastorate at West Lebanon,
Maine, at a salary of $175 a year.

PASTOR AT LEBANON

In entering on his first pastorate, Mr. Cheney's
most prominent feeling, as expressed in his notes,
seems to have been one of self-depreciation and
fear that he was not good enough for the high
calling of a Christian minister. As a preacher,
his characteristics were dignity of manner and
deep earnestness, rather than a magnetic style, or
power in arousing the emotions. Prof. J. Y. Stan-
ton of Bates College was a boy when Mr. Cheney
went to West Lebanon. He describes the con-
ditions as follows :

" The church and society was composed of
the families of Legro's Corner, a small and
beautiful village, and those on the farms
near by. Nearly all were Free Baptists. It
was an intelligent, moral and religious com-
munity, with few of the faults of country
villages at the present time. The church was
largely the fruit of the labor of one man, who
had preached there forty years. He had had

OREN B. CHENEY 59

few opportunities for culture, but the unsel-
fishness and purity of his life were remark-
able. He was paid no salary, his family
deriving their support mainly from his farm.
" It is not strange that a man who put so
much heart into his work should not want a
successor ; and it is not strange that intelli-
gent church members should desire a change.
All were reluctant to grieve their dear friend
and some would not consent to a change.
Mr. Cheney was strongly urged to become
pastor and at last consented. At this critical
time in church and community, a man less
wise, less forbearing and less firm than Mr.
Cheney would have ruined everything. He
was non-partizan and cordial to all, and was
soon much beloved as a pastor and greatly
admired as a man."

In August, 1847, a new home life was started
by Mr. Cheney's marriage with Nancy S. Perkins,
daughter of Rev. Thomas Perkins, an able Free
Baptist minister. She was a woman of strong
characteristics. She had a superior education and
had been for years a successful teacher. She was
thereby not only fitted to be a pastor's wife, but
also a helper and sympathizer in her husband's
educational work. Little " Holly," who had been
cared for in his grandmother's home, now came
to be his father's companion and to develop in
the loving atmosphere of home.

It will help us as we further study Mr. Cheney's
character to note, in passing, his high regard for

60 LIFE AND WORK OF

true womanhood. A noble woman seemed to him
to embody, in a degree unattainable by any man,
the finer qualities in human nature. He told the
writer that, early in life, he felt defrauded in not
having the opportunity to possess that especial
refinement which seemed to him innate to woman.
He admired women of large intellectual capacity
to be and to do, those who stand firmly and
bravely beside their brothers in the battle of life.
The ivy type did not so much attract him ; and
yet his chivalrous nature was on the alert to help
women who were suffering from unequal condi-
tions.

Many a wbman has sent him thanks for fatherly
help in severe trial or timely advice amid legal
disabilities. Marriage was to him a companion-
ship of equality, a union, in which there was
something strong in each to complement the
other's need. He never needed conversion to
equal suffrage. He believed in it as naturally as
he breathed. He thought that woman's sphere
included all that she was able to do well and he
rejoiced in all new openings for her development.

LEBANON ACADEMY

With the educational impulse strong within
them, Mr. and Mrs. Cheney sympathized with the
young people in their parish who were longing for
better educational opportunities and they started
an Academy course in the village school-house.

OREN B. CHENEY 61

Professor J. Y. Stanton, then twelve years old,
gives us an interesting reminiscence of it :

" It was a great success from the begin-
ning. We were an enthusiastic band of
scholars. I began the study of Latin under
Mr. Cheney, a thorough and lovable teacher.
Mrs. Cheney was my teacher in algebra and
she was very interesting and competent. She
introduced into the school some new features,
which greatly increased the interest. Those
were happy days for us, young people. The
success of this school demonstrated to Mr.
Cheney the need of making it permanent and
Lebanon Academy was founded. Money was
easily raised and a substantial two-s t o r y
building was erected, from which there was a
fine prospect of mountain, river, and sur-
rounding country.

" Lebanon Academy has been an inesti-
mable blessing, not only to Lebanon, but to
all the neighboring towns. A substantial edu-
cation has been obtained here by more than
a thousand persons, who, without the Acad-
emy, would have received only the education
of the town school. Several young men re-
ceived there their first impulse towards a
college education. In the few years, during
which Mr. Cheney resided in Lebanon, he
did the work of a lifetime."

Mr. Cheney's influence as a character builder

is shown by the testimony of another of his

students, Benjamin F. Corson, editor of the
Register, Glencoe, Minnesota :

62 LIFE AND WORK OF

" I attended Mr. Cheney's school in the
little red school-house in Lebanon, — cut the
wood, built the fires and swept the room for
my tuition. I was also afterward janitor in
the Academy. My personal feeling for my
old Professor has always been that he was
one of God's angels, sent to show his pupils
that the highest aim of their education was
to serve God and their fellow-men. His
language and habits of life were the purest
and best. ***** The ninth of April,
1850, was a memorable time. In the previous
February, a serious spirit began to pervade the
school. Prayer meetings and Sunday services
were better attended. The deep undertone
of religious feeling increased, until by the
first of April nearly all the students, number-
ing seventy-five or eighty, felt its influence.

" April sixth, with two others, I made a
move for a holier life. The school and the
whole community were stirred more and more,
until by April 9th, the power of the Holy one
so rested upon the pupils, that they began to
ask to be excused and went to the long
recitation room above. At last, the number
left was so small that Professor Cheney said :
'You may all go.' All went except two.
Such a scene I never saw, or experienced
elsewhere,— some singing, some praying, some
agonizing, some shouting, and heaven's great
unseen cloud of rejoicing angels hovering
over repenting young men and women. All
over the school-room and environs was after-
ward written, 'Remember April 9, 1850.'
That revival was the result, under God, of O.

OREN B. CHENEY 63

B. Cheney's life and Christian influence. He
was a holy man from the ground up."

During Mr. Cheney's residence in Lebanon, two
daughters, Caroline and Emeline, came to brighten
his home. They were two tricksy little sprites,
who brought more and more joy and sunshine as
they developed. The father heart in Mr. Cheney
was strong and true. A very busy man, he yet
had time to know and enjoy his children and to
give to their best interests due consideration. His
sympathy with them was so hearty that ruling
them was an easy matter. He found love and a
steady eye an improvement upon Solomon's
method. He loved to tell how, when a poor
woman called, who said she had no shoes for her
children, the younger tot began at once to take
off her own.

CITIZEN

As already seen, Mr. Cheney's influence as
citizen and patriot was given to such political
movements as advanced needed reforms. His
first vote for President was given in 1844 for
James G. Birney, candidate of the Liberty Party.
Now that the Free Soil Party had taken its place,
he was active in its interests and soon after going
to Lebanon was made its candidate for the United
States House of Representatives ; but finding that
the Whig candidate was opposed to slavery, he
declined the nomination. Later, by a combination

64 LIFE AND WORK OF

of the Free Soil, Independent and Whig parties of
the towns of Lebanon and Sandford, he was elected
Representative to the Maine Legislature.

Rev. Mr. Cheney's real manhood could hardly
have been paid a higher compliment, for the
nomination was made without his knowledge. He
was greatly surprised, when, the morning after
election, a neighbor called and informed him of
his success. But never was divine guidance more
plainly seen in the fitting of any man for his life
work. Nothing could have been more opportune
than his spending several months during the next
two years as legislator at the capital city of Maine.

Legislative business was to him like his native
air. He was at home in it. He readily learned
its tactics. His honesty of purpose commanded
respect and he rapidly gained influence. In any-
thing he attempted his persistency was balanced
by his gentlemanly manner and quietness of spirit.
The fact that he secured from the legislature two
thousand dollars toward an endowment for Leb-
anon Academy shows that he had already learned
the art of getting money for good purposes.

One other notable thing connected with his
service in the Legislature is worthy of notice. It
was in 185 1 that Neal Dow first went to Augusta
to urge the prohibitory method of dealing with
the liquor traffic. Some professed temperance
men were uncertain about such a drastic measure,
but O. B. Cheney recognized its value at once.

OREN B. CHENEY 65

It was a satisfaction to him to vote for it and
always a pleasant memory that he had the privi-
lege. To the end of his life he never wavered in
his belief in and devotion to the principle of
prohibition as the true one to be applied to the
liquor business, and no sophistry ever blinded him
to its great value to the State of Maine. Accord-
ing to his best judgment, he always voted con-
sistently with his belief.

AUGUSTA PASTORATE

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

OFFICIAL POSITION

EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR TO THE
MORNING STAR

VII

In the middle of the nineteenth century the
line between denominations was so sharply drawn
that bitter discussions of doctrines were common
among ministers and laymen of different faiths,
and too great charity for differences in creeds was
believed to verge on heresy. To one so true to
his own convictions as was O. B. Cheney there
was no temptation to attend any church because
of its popularity, or because of its wealth or
influence.

It is, therefore, just what would be expected
that, during his months in the Legislature in
Augusta, he should attend the little Free Baptist
church, worshiping in a small hall, and it was a
natural result that his helpfulness in speaking and
singing should lead to his receiving a call to the
pastorate of the church. Of the circumstances
attending Mr. Cheney's acceptance of the call
Rev. C. F. Penney, D.D., — so long the loved and
honored pastor of this same church — wrote, many
years later, the following reminiscence :

" Walking down State street a few years
since, with President Cheney, he suddenly
paused on the sidewalk, about half way
between the residence of Hon. James G.
Blaine and the State House. I looked inquir-
ingly and he said, ' On this spot I made what

70 LIFE AND WORK OF

was perhaps the most important decision of
my life. I decided to come to Augusta to
take charge of our church interest here, at
the invitation of the church and the Free
Baptist Home Mission Society. The session
of the legislature was drawing to a close and
I was about to go home. I had a call to
another place at a fair salary. The call here
had little money in it, hardly enough to keep
soul and body together, and the hardest of
work. Thinking as to what was duty, I sud-
denly paused, at this very place, and asked
myself in so many words, ' to which place
shall I go ? ' And a voice seemed to say,
' to Augusta.' I audibly replied, ' I will choose
this field.' "

Mr. Cheney had spent six years of hard work
at Lebanon, ministering to the church and found-
ing the Academy. He left the former united and
prosperous and the latter so well established that
years of usefulness were before it. In his written
articles he always referred with touching tender-
ness to the associations and friendships of his
first pastorate.

His life-purpose at this time is well illustrated
by the following incident. While he was planting
an orchard of apple trees at his Lebanon home, a
passing friend asked : " Why do you do this ? You
will never eat apples from those trees." "No,"
was the reply, "but somebody will."

On taking the Augusta pastorate Mr. Cheney
saw that in order to establish the church on a firm

OREN B. CHENEY 71

basis, the first requisite was a house of worship.
With him to see a need was to act, and we find
him during the next year busily engaged in raising
the money for building the edifice, which for over
fifty years was to be the church home. In raising
this money Mr. Cheney not only canvassed Maine
churches, but also many in other New England
States, thus obtaining an experience that proved
very valuable in his later life-work. With the
purpose of securing aid in his work he wrote
numerous articles for The Morning Star. The
printed reports of his receipts show not only that
most of the money was raised in small amounts,
but also how careful he was to acknowledge every
cent received. His purpose is expressed in an
article, in which he says :

" It should be remembered that we will
never raise a finger in helping to dedicate the
house until it shall be paid for."

The result is stated in Rev. C. F. Penney's
reminiscence :

" The beautiful church in Augusta, dedi-
cated without debt in a little more than a
year after President Cheney's pastorate com-
menced, stands a monument of his indomi-
table faith and persistent zeal."

Although the church was dedicated and practi-
cally completed in November, 1853, many finish-
ing touches remained to be given. One of these

72 LIFE AND WORK OF

was the furnishing of the pastor's study. In
September, 1854, Mr. Cheney writes in his diary:

" This morning I enter my study in our
new church. It is a neat, pretty minister's
home. How kind are my dear brethren and
sisters, in fitting up for me this inner court
in the Lord's temple ! Well, I have just dedi-
cated it to God."

Here he gives a complete order of exercises,
adding to each, " By the poor pastor." "I know
God will accept the consecration, because all has
been done with an honest heart. He has helped
us in erecting this house. Now, oh, Lord, fill it
and me with thy glory. Oh that God would ever
dwell in this study to teach me by His spirit and
His word and make me useful to His people."

Everything seemed now to promise for Mr.
Cheney a successful pastorate in a growing, con-
genial church. His pulpit ministrations were
thoughtful and dignified and attended with spirit-
ual power, as shown by frequent baptisms and
accessions to the church. Because of his sym-
pathetic nature, he was much in demand at
funerals. He was held in general respect and
had influence with many prominent citizens.

During this pastorate his voice was at its best.
His singing was of the gospel evangelist style and
made deep impressions. Some people said they
went to church to hear him sing.

That his ideas of a Christian church were broad

OREN B. CHENEY 73

and comprehensive is shown by Rev. Dr. C. F.
Penney's testimony thirty years later.

" A new church interest, such as President
Cheney formed at Augusta, is easily molded.
A trusted leader shapes it almost at will.
Fortunate, indeed, are the people whose early
history is under such guidance as that of the
Augusta church in the first four years of its
existence. Our church became thoroughly
imbued with the spirit of its leader and from
that day to the present has stood, not only
strong and pronounced on all questions of
moral and social reform, but equally intelli-
gent and liberal in the various departments
of Christian benevolence."

POLITICAL ACTIVITY

In order to understand Mr. Cheney's all-around
development, we must take note of his other ac-
tivities during the early years of his Augusta pas-
torate. His interest in the Free Soil Party had
not in the least abated. This party was the polit-
ical expression of anti-slavery sentiment, and, as
a Christian man, he felt that he must do all in his
power to advance its interests. That he was a
valued helper is shown by his election, in 1852,
by the Maine Free Soil convention as its delegate
to the National Free Soil Convention at Pitts-
burgh, Pennsylvania, which nominated John P.
Hale for the presidency. Some incidents con-
nected with the journey to Pittsburgh are worthy

74 LIFE AND WORK OF

of note. One evening on the steamer on Lake
Erie many passengers, — including Charles Francis
Adams and other delegates of note — were gathered
on deck, watching a glorious sunset. Suddenly an
inspiration came to Mr. Cheney and he sang verse
after verse of an old hymn, the closing of which
was:

"A trust in God I hold it fast
In peril and in pain,

Until that glorious Sun shall rise,
That ne'er shall set again,"

closing just as the sun sank in the water. That
it created a profound impression is shown by the
testimony of Rev. G. H. Ball, D.D., who was one
of the delegates present and who says :

" The steamer was crowded with passengers
of every stripe of politics. Dr. Cheney sang
as if inspired. All were charmed by the clear,
rich tenor voice and many eyes were wet."

At each stopping-place delegates joined the
party and among them was Frederick Douglass.
Dinner for the delegates was ready at Alliance,
Ohio. As they entered the dining hall the two
long tables looked very inviting to the hungry
men ; but the proprietor blocked the way. The
" nigger " must not come in. " I tell you that raised
a storm," said Dr. Cheney, in telling of the inci-
dent. " The delegates said with one accord, ' If
Fred Douglass cannot eat, we will not ;' then the
proprietor backed right down."

OREN B. CHENEY 75

The convention was a very enthusiastic one.
Dr. Cheney always remembered with pride the
very able speech made by his friend, Dr. Ball.
A few weeks later Mr. Cheney attended a banquet
given in Boston in honor of John P. Hale, at
which Charles Sumner was one of the speakers.
In his report of it for The Morning Star he refers
to the absence of wine as a noticeable and very
gratifying feature. Mr. Cheney retained through
life a very pleasant remembrance of his acquaint-
ance with John P. Hale, and he often repeated
some of Hale's apt stories. One of these, which
he used to illustrate a weak character, is as fol-
lows :

" A domineering wife one day made her
husband crawl under the bed when they saw
a visitor coming. After a while the poor
fellow began to look slyly out between the
valances. The threatening look of his wife
intimidated him for a time, but soon his
patience gave way and he burst out with,
' As long as I have the spirit of a man, I will
peep.' "

SECRETARY AND EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTOR

In October, 1853, Mr. Cheney was a delegate
to the Free Baptist General Conference, held in
Fairport, New York. He had been for four years
Corresponding Secretary of the Free Baptist Edu-
cation Society and for five years Recording Secre-
tary of the Free Baptist Foreign Missionary

76 LIFE AND WORK OF

Society. The duties involved in these responsible
positions gave him an influence in the denomina-
tion and kept him in touch with people in differ-
ent parts of the country.

This meeting of the General Conference was of
much importance, as the immediate future of the
Biblical School was settled by the decision to
remove it to New Hampton, New Hampshire, and
to raise $20,000 towards its endowment. On his
return to Augusta, Mr. Cheney entered heartily
into the work of helping to raise this money and
soon began to report receipts for it.

He was a regular attendant at and an influential
factor in the Quarterly and Yearly Meetings, of
which his church was a constituent member. It
is a good example of his foresight and good judg-
ment, that at the session of the Kennebec Yearly
Meeting, held in 1853, he proposed a union of the
three Maine Yearly Meetings into a State Associ-
ation, as conducive to better system and greater
efficiency in work. This was so earnestly opposed
that the matter rested for many years, but the
union was effected in 1888, much to the advantage
of the denominational work.

During one Yearly Meeting session a terrific
thunder storm rolled and crashed around the
church. Some of the people were terrified and a
panic seemed imminent, when Mr. Cheney went
to the platform and sang the old hymn, one verse
of which is :

OREN B. CHENEY 77

" God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform ;
He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm."

The clear voice, rising above the noise of the
elements, produced an electrical effect more
potent than that without, for before he had
finished, the audience sat as if spell-bound, then
looking out found the storm was abating.

From the time when, in 1843, Mr. Cheney began
to write brief articles for The Morning Star, the
amount contributed continued to increase with
the passing years. It will help us to an insight
into his interest in current events to note the
different subjects on which he wrote during the
time when many people would have been so ab-
sorbed in church building and the other activities
referred to as to have no thought for anything
else. During the three months preceding the
dedication of the Augusta church each issue of
the paper had two or more articles from his pen,
including the following subjects :

1. Several on Temperance, with discussion of
conditions in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and
Minnesota ; and with appeals to the people of
Maine to so vote as to retain the Prohibitory
Law.

2. Duties of a Faithful Sunday School
Teacher.

78 LIFE AND WORK OF

3. A general article on The Free Baptists in
New Brunswick.

4. Value of Woman's Work in the Temper-
ance and Anti-slavery Reforms.

5. Duty of Ministers to the Sick.

6. Articles on Political Conditions.

7. Several columns on Anti-Slavery, with an
extended discussion of criticisms of Mrs. Harriet
Beecher Stowe.

8. Respect for Law.

9. A thrilling story of a man, robbed in a
" grog-shop " while on the way to make purchases
for a sick wife.

10. Frequent stories of travel in the interest
of the Augusta church, with tables of receipts.

11. Reports as Corresponding and Recording
Secretary of the Societies previously referred to.

At the annual meeting of the Corporators of the
Free Baptist Printing Establishment, held in 1853,
Mr. Cheney was elected assistant editor of The
Morning- Star. In his Salutatory, in the issue of
October, 1853, after referring to his receipt of the
news of his appointment, he says :

" In the autumn of 1839, just fourteen
years ago, we received a similar announce-
ment, but fearing that our youthful pen would
fail to do what might be expected of it, we
did not dare assume such a responsibility and
declined it. * * * * We accept the appoint-
ment this time, not because we now feel

OREN B. CHENEY 79

adequate to the work assigned us — for more
and more we see our ignorance — but because
we believe that, if a man cannot do every-
thing, he can do something. If he cannot be
faithful in much, he can be faithful in little.

' And he that does the best he can, does well,
Acts nobly, an angel can do no more.' "

He follows with burning words expressive of his
feeling about the evils of slavery and intemper-
ance and his purpose to write and work for their
overthrow. During the next ten years with few
exceptions he contributed weekly to The Morning
Star articles on themes as varied as is the life of
humanity. One of these, published in the Star of
June 2, 1854, was a description as an eye-witness
of the return to slavery of Anthony Burns.*

We give a few extracts :

" I was in Boston. Awaking early, I took
a walk. I wanted the atmosphere of 1776,
none of the oxygen taken out. So I stood
upon Dorchester Heights, one of the spots
consecrated to liberty and the equal rights of

That morning the news spread like wild-fire
that Anthony Burns had been seized by U.S.

* The Fugitive Slave Law, requiring the return of run-
away slaves to their owners, although passed in 1851, had
aroused so much opposition in the North as to be but
partially operative. The South clamored for enforcement
and United States officials came to their aid.

80 LIFE AND WORK OF

officers. Hearing of this, Mr. Cheney repaired
quickly to the city proper and thus reported what
ensued :

" Through the politeness of a college class-
mate I was seated at a window in full view of
what was passing, and this is the scene : The
door of the court-house is strongly guarded.
A six pound cannon faces it. An immense
crowd of a thousand soldiers surround it.
Men, women and children fill the streets, look
out of windows, lean against chimneys and
are on roofs of the highest buildings. An
approaching guard of United States Marines

is greeted with a storm of hisses

It is now twenty-five minutes past nine.
There is motion and stir in the court-room.
The decision is made. Liberty or slavery
has triumphed. 'Goes back. Goes back.
Goes back,' runs along the tens of thousands
as lightning on the wires. Then follow hisses,
groans and cries of 'shame.' Women hang
out from windows black shawls, mantillas,
and strips of cloth "

Mr. Cheney follows with the crowd and sees
Burns put upon the United States cutter that is to
return him to slavery. He hears the master offered
twelve hundred dollars for him and hears that the
word from Washington is " Must go back." Then
the intensity of his feelings expresses itself in the
following language :

" Go back ! Oh thou great and mighty God !
Thou ruler of the land and sea ! Why dost

O. B. Cheney

About 1855

OREN B. CHENEY 81

thou not in anger stretch out thine hand and
let thy winds blow, thy tempests rise, thy
ocean rock in fury, thy thunder-bolts crash
and all on board — one only excepted — go to
the lowest bottom ! Why ? Because thou art
slow to anger and waitest to be gracious.
Thou canst bear it. Help me to bear it in
the spirit of an unworthy child of thine. My
prayer then only shall be ' Father forgive
them. They know not what they do.' To
my brother in bonds :

'Live and take comfort. Thou hast left

behind
Powers that will work for thee, air, earth and

skies.
There's not a breathing of the common mind
That will forget thee. Thou hast great

allies.' "

Such is an illustration of the work which, as
assistant editor, found its place in Mr. Cheney's
busy life for years to come.

THE VISION

MAINE STATE SEMINARY

DIFFICULTY IN SECURING A CHARTER

LOCATION IN LEWISTON

CHARLES SUMNER FURNISHES A
SCHOOL MOTTO

LETTERS FROM CHARLES SUMNER

VIII

On the evening of September twenty-second,
1854, Mr. Cheney was resting in his Augusta
home, planning for the development of his church
work, when a letter was handed to him. It proved
to be from Rev. J. A. Lowell, Principal of Par-
sonsfield Seminary, and contained the startling
announcement that the Seminary building had
been burned to the ground.

As Mr. Cheney pondered over this great dis-
aster, a flood of tender recollections rushed over
him. He recalled his early experience at Parsons-
field, first as scholar, then later as teacher and
preacher, and lived over his early married life
there. But soon his thought turned from himself
to the boys and girls so suddenly deprived of a
school, and, as he thought on and on, he became
impressed with the need of a more centrally
located and higher institution of learning than any
previously furnished Free Baptist young people in
Maine.* He also remembered that there were many
bright boys and girls, without denominational con-
nection, scattered throughout the villages and
farming districts, who longed for an education, but
were without the means of obtaining it.

* It must be remembered that at this time nearly all insti-
tutions, except common grade schools, were under denomi-
national auspices.

86 LIFE AND WORK OF

As he weighed the needs and conditions, an ideal
school began to take form in his mind, adapted
to students who, in order to pay their way, must
depend on their own efforts. As he studied the
matter, the possibility of founding such a school
seemed more and more practicable. Then a voice,
as if from heaven, seemed to say to his inmost
being, " Do this work for me."

Startled by the suddenness of the thought, he
urged, in opposition, his consecration to the
ministry and his opportunity for usefulness in
Augusta — that he had worked hard to secure a
house of worship and was now just ready to reap
the benefits in building up a strong church. But
the divine vision of duty would not be dismissed.
Hour after hour passed and as he sat and pon-
dered, oblivious of the passing time, the needs and
possibilities developed more and more in his
thought. The future of numbers of young people
seemed suddenly entrusted to him.

But he saw also the difficulties to be encount-
ered. He knew that few, even of his friends,
would understand or sympathize with his ideals,
— that, instead of enthusiastic helpers, he should
have to contend with faint-heartedness and even
opposition. He saw that it meant years of unap-
preciated hard work ; he saw days and days of
solicitation for money, involving frequent and
prolonged absences from home.

But, as the night waned, the vision of duty

OREN B. CHENEY 87

became more and more insistent, until, finally,
with prayer for guidance, he yielded to what he
believed to be a divine call, — made the great
sacrifice of giving up the ministry (how great it
was, few but himself ever knew), and said, " Here
am I, Lord, to do thy will."

When, in the early morning hours, Mr. Cheney
retired to rest, his purpose and plans in life were
as completely changed as if he had become
another man. His future life proved that " he
was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision."
September twenty-second, 1854, was always to
him the birth-night, not only of Maine State
Seminary, but of Bates College also, for the latter
is but a natural outgrowth of the former.

MAINE STATE SEMINARY

O. B. Cheney was altogether too shrewd a man
to forestall either success or defeat by many con-
fidences in regard to his new plans. He under-
stood human nature well enough to know that the
divine voice which speaks to one man is not heard
by the multitude. He made his moves with cau-
tion. As Corresponding Secretary of the Free
Baptist Education Society it was suitable for him
to be a leader in some action to be taken in con-
sequence of the burning of Parsonsfield Seminary.

The anniversaries of the Free Baptist Benevo-
lent Societies were to be held in Saco, Maine, in
the following month — October, 1854. There, at

88 LIFE AND WORK OF

Mr. Cheney's invitation, " the friends of a higher
institution of learning " met in the church gallery,
and voted to call a convention to act upon the
matter. During the next month Mr. Cheney was
busy, enlisting the interest of those who would be
likely to be in sympathy with starting a school,
prominent among these being Rev. E. Knowlton,
member of Congress from Maine. The conven-
tion was held in Topsham, Maine, in the follow-
ing month — November. In presenting the need
for a school Mr. Cheney said in part :

"We do not propose an Academy, but a
school of high order, between a college and
an Academy. We shall petition the Legis-
lature of Maine to suitably endow, as well as
to incorporate, such an Institution. We know
our claim is good and we intend openly and
manfully and we trust in a Christian spirit to
press it. If we fail next winter, we shall try
another legislature. If we fail on a second
trial, we hope to try a third and a fourth."

Such faith and determination could but be con-
tagious. The convention enthusiastically voted
to establish a school. Trustees were elected and
a committee consisting of O. B. Cheney, E.
Knowlton and Francis Lyford was appointed to
have the matter in charge. A prominent minister
from New Hampshire came to the convention to
oppose the movement, on the ground that the
Free Baptist school in that state was sufficient ;

OREN B. CHENEY 89

thus, at its birth, the school was baptized in the
element of opposition. But as well might the
effort have been made to stay an incoming tide.

At the time appointed for the first committee
meeting, Rev. Mr. Knowlton was sick, but Messrs.
Cheney and Lyford went in a sleigh through a
snow-storm from Augusta to South Montville and
the meeting was held in Mr. Knowlton's sick
room. Since September twenty-second, plans had
been taking form in Mr. Cheney's mind, and these
were the ones that, in the main, were adopted as
the working method in founding the school. At
his suggestion the proposed institution was named
Maine State Seminary.

The securing of a charter from the legislature
was the first thing to be attempted. As a result
of the committee's activity, in order to pave the
way for legislative action, petitions to the legis-
lature for charter and endowment for the proposed
school were at once placed in circulation among
Free Baptists and other friends of the Seminary,
and, on the assembling of the Maine legislature
in January in its session of i854-'55, two of these
petitions with a large number of signatures were
ready for presentation. Others continued to come
in, until, by February 28th, twenty-four different
petitions were presented. These were referred to
the Joint Committee on Education, the Chairman
of which was President of a Seminary in the
state.

90 LIFE AND WORK OF

After some delay, during which time much per-
sonal work was done among the members of the
legislature, the Committee reported a bill giving
to Maine State Seminary a charter and an appro-
priation of $15,000; but this was immediately
followed by requests for aid from other schools in
the state, with the result that the Committee soon
after reported an Omnibus bill, giving to different
schools $60,000. This was with the apparent
purpose of killing the whole thing. After long
discussion the Omnibus bill was defeated, for the
members well knew that they would not be sus-
tained by their constituents in voting for edu-
cation so large a sum of money.

There seemed now to be little prospect that
anything could be done at that session. Mr.
Knowlton was obliged to return to his home early
in February, but Messrs. Cheney and Lyford lived
in Augusta, and, although publicly the matter
rested, quietly but steadily the interests of the
school were pushed. Mr. Cheney visited member
after member of the legislature with this appeal:

" Other denominations have their schools
and they have been helped by the state.
There are many Free Baptists in Maine
whose children need education, in order to
become valuable citizens. Now that Parsons-
field Seminary is burned, they have no school.
There is no good reason why they should not
have such help as others have had."

OREN B. CHENEY 91

As a result of this personal work the bill ap-
propriating $15,000 and that giving a charter to
Maine State Seminary were again reported to the
House and passed that body. (The remainder of
the story is mainly in Mr. Cheney's own words:)

" The excitement was then so great, that I
let the matter rest until about three weeks
before the close of the session. In the mean-
time the presidents of other schools went
home. As the session was nearing its close,
I called upon the Chairman of the Joint Com-
mittee, and asked him if, at a suitable time,
he would call up the bill for action in the
Senate. He said it would be of no use. As
the bill was in his hands, it was not easy to
know what to do next, but I found a friend
of the measure who agreed that, if the Chair-
man continued to refuse to report the bill, he
would call upon him to do so from the floor
of the Senate, and, if he then declined, he
would himself call it up on the last day of the
session.

" For various reasons no action had been
taken and the last day had arrived. Besides
the Chairman of the Committee, there was
one other Senator, a friend of his, who had
earnestly opposed the bill. At noon I ob-
tained an audience with him. I told him
that, when I was a member of the Legislature,
I voted to help all the schools, including the
one in which he was interested. I reminded
him that but a few hours remained before the
close of the session and begged of him, as a
personal favor, that, if the bill was brought

92 LIFE AND WORK OF

up, he would not offer an amendment. He
finally promised and then I felt pretty sure of
success.

" When the Senate was called to order in
the afternoon, I went right to the Chairman
and asked him to call up the bill. He said,
' It will be of no use, Mr. Cheney. It will
not pass.' I said 'call it up and let us see.'
He said he would, if I would allow him to
make an amendment, giving to the school
which he represented $7,000 and to Maine
State Seminary $8,000. I replied that that
would send it back to the House and defeat
everything for that session. When he found
that, if he did not report the bill, some one
else would call for it, he yielded and it was
soon before the Senate. The question was
on the engrossment. The motion to have the
bill engrossed was passed by a good majority
and the victory seemed to be won.

" Through the courtesy of the President of
the Senate, I was myself allowed to take the
document to the Secretary of State's office to
be engrossed. This work was then done by
hand and it was late in the afternoon before
it was finished. Imagine my feelings, when,
on hearing it read, I discovered a mistake
which seriously affected the whole bill. By
permission I took it to the clerk of the House
of Representatives and he certified as to how
the bill passed, but he said it was too late to
do anything more about it at that session.
I had a different opinion.

" The second engrossment took until late
in the evening. I then carried it to the Com-
mittee on Engrossed Bills and they certified

OREN B. CHENEY 93

that it was correct. I hastened with it to
the Speaker of the House, Hon. Sidney Per-
ham. he immediately put it to vote, and the
bill passed. The Speaker then allowed me
to take it to the Senate. The presiding
officer, Hon. Frankbin Muzzey, at once called
for the vote of that body, the bill passed and
he signed it. I asked if, instead of sending
by a committee, as usual, I might, in person,
take it to the Governor. He gave the per-
mission. It was then ten o'clock. The ses-
sion closed at twelve. As I entered the room
of the Governor, Hon. Anson P. Morrill, he
looked up from the bills he was signing and
smilingly said,

" ' Well, Mr. Cheney, have you a bill there
you want me to veto ? ' I replied,

" ' Yes, Governor, if you want to ! ' He
promptly affixed his signature and I went
home and went to sleep with the happiest
heart I had had in years."

Mr. Cheney inaugurated the campaign for
raising money for the school by the following
announcement in The Morning Star of March 28,

1855:

" The little barque, Maine State Seminary,
came safely into port, the 16th instant.
Probably many of her friends, who have been
so anxious as to her fate, were locked in
slumber at the hour of her arrival, for it was
ten o'clock. The voyage was long, — the
weather stormy, — the freight heavy, — but she
came safely in."

94 LIFE AND WORK OF

To advance the interests of the school Mr.
Cheney at once began the publication in Augusta
of a monthly paper — The Seminary Advocate.
Through its pages many young people became
interested in the school and it became a helpful
medium for raising money. Messrs. Cheney and
Knowlton now used all the time they could spare
from other duties in soliciting funds.

LOCATION IN LEWISTON

The committee on locating the school consisted
of Reverends Cheney, Knowlton and N. Brooks.
Different sites presented claims and inducements
and it was after much careful thought and investi-
gation, attended by honest differences in opinion,
that the committee finally located the school at
Lewiston, on the Androscoggin river, and in the
county of that name. Lewiston was then a small,
but rapidly growing town. It was not only a
business centre for a fine farming district, but its
water facilities for mill purposes had attracted
Boston capital and the prospects were good for
rapid development in manufacturing.

The site of the school was donated by the
citizens of Lewiston and the Water Power Com-
pany. Five acres were at first offered, but Mr.
Cheney would not consider locating until twenty
acres were promised. In form the land constitutes
an oblong square. It is situated on a somewhat
elevated ridge, sloping gently in front and rear

OREN B. CHENEY 95

and with a grove of five or six acres. It is about
a mile from the business centre of the city, the
intervening land being then mostly devoted to
farming. This location has proved to be, in many
respects, one of the finest among New England
schools.

As soon as this site was secured, it became
important that Mr. Cheney should remove to
Lewiston. During the two and a half years since
his " vision " of duty had changed his life-purpose,
he had continued his work as pastor of the
Augusta church, reporting for The Morning Star,
baptisms, interesting prayer-meetings, "good
times " in receiving new members, and other signs
of healthy church work. But he now felt that his
best energies must be devoted to the school, and
accordingly sent in his resignation. The church
voted not to accept it, and only, when he repeated
and sadly insisted, did they release him. We find
him soon after, early in 1856, located in Lewiston
near the Seminary grounds.

The money thus far donated for the school had
been in comparatively small sums. As the success
of such an enterprise must be dependent on some
large gifts, Mr. Cheney was overjoyed, when in
the spring of 1856, he was invited to call on Seth
Hathorn of Woolwich, Maine, and was informed
by him and his wife, Mary, that they proposed to
make a liberal donation to the school.

Mrs. Hathorn said, " I have been hoping and

96 LIFE AND WORK OF

praying that God would open the way for a portion
of our property to be disposed of where it would
do good after our death. I believe the Lord sent
you here."

Encouraged by their promise of at least five
thousand dollars, Mr. Cheney soon made arrange-
ments for erecting a building, to be named
Hathorn Hall, in honor of these generous donors ;
and on June 26th, 1856, the corner-stone of Maine
State Seminary was laid with appropriate cere-
monies. This was a gala day for Lewiston. We
quote from an address by President Cheney :

" The people assembled by thousands, and
a very large procession composed of the
trustees, clergymen, in and out of town,
directors of the Franklin Company, fire com-
panies of the village, teachers and children
of the public schools and many citizens,
marched to the seminary grounds under the
marshalship of Capt. A. H. Kelsey of Lewis-
ton, and led by the music of two brass bands
of the village. Rev. Benjamin Thorne, a
venerable father of the Free Baptist ministry,
offered the prayer of invocation, and Rev.
George Knox, standing upon the stone,
offered the consecrating prayer. Rev. Mar-
tin J. Steere delivered the oration, and Hon.
C. W. Goddard and Rev. John Stevens made
addresses. It was made my duty to lay the
stone. A beautiful metallic box, presented
by Mr. John Goss, and containing the charter
and various other papers, was deposited in

OREN B. CHENEY 97

the stone. The following ode, composed by
Mrs. V. G. Ramsey, was sung :

We come with joy, we come with prayer,
And lay this consecrated stone ;
O thou, who with a Father's care
Hast watched the work our hands have done,
Bless us, and let thy richest grace
Descend henceforth upon this place.

We come not here to rear a pile

With columns fair and turrets high,

To win the world's approving smile,
With Eastern art and wealth to vie ;
Far other thoughts our hearts control,
Far other wishes fill our soul.

The massive walls of brick and stone,

Which here may rise are not our care;
When busy hands their work have done,
And there shall stand a structure fair,
Then shall our care and toil begin,
A greater triumph yet to win.

Here will we mold, refine and carve

Those living stones, which, borne on high,
The mighty Architect shall use
To build a temple in the sky,

Whose matchless glory fitteth well
The place where Jesus deigns to dwell.

Those living stones — not diamonds bright

Compare with them, nor pearls, nor gold.
If we but do the work aright,

These precious stones to carve and mold,
Angels will watch o'er us with joy
And almost envy our employ.

President Cheney's political relations with Hon.
Charles Sumner, member of Congress, from
Massachusetts, made him feel free to request a
motto for the new Institute. The following is the
reply received :

98 LIFE AND WORK OF

Washington, Dec. n, 180.
My Dear Sir:

Amove ac Studio* I cannot send
anything better than these words for the seal of
your Institution. I once thought to have them
cut on a seal of my own, but did not.

But I doubt not you will be able to devise
something better than anything I can suggest.
Accept my thanks for the kindness of your com-
munication, and believe me, dear sir,

Faithfully yours,

Charles Sumner.

He evidently kept the motto in mind as evi-
denced by the reference to it in the following
letter, written four years later :

Boston, 17th Nov., '61.
My Dear Sir :

I have indulged the hope of mak-
ing a visit to Bangor this season, with a stop at
Lewiston, but it is now too late. All my time
until I leave for Washington is now mortgaged.

Accept my best wishes for your good and use-
ful Institute.

If it should continue to be inspired by its
motto — as I doubt not — it will be a fountain to
the state.

Faithfully yours,

Charles Sumner.
O. B. Cheney.

* Amore ac Studio maybe translated "with ardent zeal
for study."

4^2ce C^J^ fr~fa.

tr^

fr^-cfc*,

GENERAL CONFERENCE IN MAINE-
VILLE, OHIO

POLITICAL EXCITEMENT

STIRRING INCIDENTS

PLANS FOR RAISING MONEY FOR THE
SEMINARY

CHILDREN'S OFFERING

IX

In October, 1856, Mr. Cheney was a member
of the Free Baptist General Conference, held in
Maineville, Ohio. He had resigned his position
as Recording Secretary of the Foreign Missionary
Society, but retained that of Corresponding Secre-
tary of the Education Society. In connection
with the duties of this position some perplexities
arose in connection with the dual work of raising
money for the Biblical School and Maine State
Seminary, the adjustment of which was helped by
his attendance at this General Conference.

In the fall of 1856 the country was in a fever
heat of excitement because of the approaching
presidential election in November, and especially
on account of the nomination for the presidency
of John C. Fremont, as candidate of the newly
formed Republican party. To this party Mr.
Cheney had transferred the warm allegiance that
he had previously given to the Free Soil party.
This was also true of a majority of the members
of the General Conference, and the session thrilled
with the spirit of the time. At its close an open-
air meeting was held in the interest of Fremont
and Dayton, ably addressed by Rev. E. Knowlton
and others.

Mr. Cheney had a notable liking for visiting
spots associated with the birth, death, or noted

104 LIFE AND WORK OF

action of prominent individuals ; and at the close
of the meetings, with four other delegates, he made
a trip to some places of note in Kentucky. While
they were in Lexington, a brother of a Maine Con-
gressman, then residing there, came to their hotel
and uttered words of warning. He said :

" Do you know that you are objects of sus-
picion ? Your presence is making much talk.
If it becomes known that you are abolition-
ists, your lives will be in danger. You must
move with great caution."

It is hardly necessary to say that the warning
was heeded. Rev. Silas Curtis — one of the com-
pany— was noted for the fervor of his prayers for
the slaves ; but it was noticeable that, when they
gathered for an evening service before separating
for the night, he failed to mention his " brothers
in black." This was for years after a source of
merriment among these friends.

After they had boarded the cars to return, a
Kentuckian came through the train, canvassing
for votes for President. When he came to the
five delegates, Mr. Cheney said, speaking for
them, " We are clergymen, who have just attended
a religious meeting in Ohio and have taken this
opportunity to visit the grave of Henry Clay, to
call on his widow and have also been to the home
of Breckenridge.* We are strangers and do not

* John C. Breckenridge was the democratic candidate for
Vice-President.

OREN B. CHENEY 105

care to vote." "Oh, yes, vote ! " was the man's
earnest rejoinder. Then Mr. Cheney looked him
steadily in the eye, and asked,

" Do you want us to tell you honestly how we
are going to vote ?"

" Certainly," was the reply.

" Well, then, my vote will be cast for Fremont
and Dayton." The others said the same. Al-
though their five votes were the only ones cast for
the Republican candidates, their quiet, gentle-
manly manner was respected and the man passed
on without comment. But it is easy to under-
stand that our travelers felt more comfortable
after they had safely crossed the Ohio river. At
any rate they tossed up their hats and otherwise
showed that the most dignified men have a good
deal of the spirit of a boy left in them.

PLANS FOR RAISING MONEY

These episodes in Mr. Cheney's life formed a
valuable safety-valve to an intense nature. He
returned home to enter upon the work of a very
busy year and now turned his energies towards
advancing the interests of the Seminary with the
hope of opening the school the next fall. This
included raising money by personal solicitation
and correspondence, keeping the Seminary in-
terests before the public through articles in the
papers and presentation at Quarterly and Yearly
Meetings, arranging for securing suitable teachers

106 LIFE AND WORK OF

and planning the necessary equipment for the
branches to be taught, and finally in having a
general oversight of the erection of Hathorn Hall
and another building then called the Boarding
Hall, but which was eventually named Parker
Hall in honor of Judge Thomas Parker of Farm-
ington, Maine, who gave five thousand dollars
towards its erection.

One of his shrewdest moves for raising money
for the Seminary, during this year, was through a
call for an offering of one dollar each from the
children in Sunday schools and elsewhere. Fol-
lowing Mr. Cheney's appeal, through the Seminary
Advocate and Morning Star, a wide-spread interest
was created, which proved to be of three-fold
value : — boys and girls became interested in the
Seminary through giving money for it, parents
had their attention called to it through their
children, and the financial aid was considerable.
The following letters illustrate the far-reaching
influence of the movement :

Mr. Cheney

Dear Sir

please except my donation for
the Semenary.

M. E. C.

7 years old

Mr. Cheney Dear Sir,

I am five years old today ; and I
am going to send you one dollar to help build the

OREN B. CHENEY 107

Maine State Seminary, and I hope I shall some-
time come there to school.

Yours, O. W. D.

Written with father's hand.

Mr. Cheney

I have just been reading your piece
in the Star and thought I would send you my
dollar It seems very small but my sister says
that the great Ocean is made of little drops I
intend to go to Lewiston to school I am eleven
years old My little cousin D B C wishes me to
enclose a dollar for him.

S. A. C.

Mr. Cheney

Dear Sir

I am a little girl of eight
years old, and sister Em Six — We send you one
dollar each which we have earned drying apples
as the Child offaring for Maine State Seminary —
and hope that when we are older we may go there
to school father sends one dollar each for little
Sister M E and H P

A. M. H.
E. S. H.

Mr. Cheney,

Dear Sir,

Enclosed, please find two
dollars for the benefit of the Maine State Semi-
nary, one of which I earned myself, and the other
is from my sister, A. M. T., who is four years old.
I an eleven years old and hope to be a student in
your school at some future time

I am your young And humble servant,
H. M. T.

108 LIFE AND WORK OF

Many of the children, who thus early became
interested in the school, were afterward among its
best scholars and later its staunch supporters.

When we remember that in giving up his
Augusta pastorate Mr. Cheney cut himself off
from any means of support, we can appreciate
something of his circumstances during his first
year in Lewiston, as referred to in a letter from
Rev. E. Knowlton, who says in objecting to Mr.
Cheney's taking boarders : " Remember you can-
not do everything and your wife cannot bear
everything.

"As to your expenses while you have been build-
ing, you shall be made whole, if my feeble
influence can effect it. You have had a good deal
to do, a good deal to bear and a good deal to
sacrifice, and I appreciate, my dear brother, what
you have done. Men generally will not thank
you, but your reward is sure. When you are in
heaven, your labors will live, live, live and work
for God and humanity. Yes, they will. And I
almost think that, after all, your labors and sacri-
fices taken in connection with your gifts and your
smiling face are enviable."

We obtain a view of conditions attending the
embryo school in the summer of 1857 through
extracts from an article published by Mr. Cheney
in the Star of June 22 nd :

" The Trustees desire, as best they can, to
meet the public demand for the opening of

OREN B. CHENEY 109

the school in the fall. They are aware that
the circumstances are not all that could be
desired ; but think proper to commence the
school and to push forward the work of finish-
ing the buildings as fast as the necessary
means can be secured. The outside of the
centre building — Hathorn Hall — was com-
pleted last year. The inside, or such portion
of it as it is proposed to occupy for the
present, is being plastered and will be painted
and dried in season for the opening term.
The outside of the Boarding Hall is nearly
completed and it is hoped that at least the
ladies' section will be in readiness for the
winter term. Students who come may or
may not be disappointed.

" No special promises or pledges are made.
Our first students must make up their minds
beforehand to find things in an unfinished
state. But, generally, it is with institutions
of all kinds as with children — first creep, then
walk. All we can say to our young friends
is that we promise to do what is in our power
to make easy, what is hard — smooth, what is

rough Though God has most

signally owned and favored the enterprise,
yet it has been attended by trials and sacri-
fices all the way. If then, young men and
women shall be ready to come and share in
sacrificing with the scores and hundreds who
have the institution dearly at heart, in behalf
of these friends, we bid them a most hearty
welcome. They can certainly have one thing
to remember, and that is that they were with
the institution in its early struggles and
sacrifices."

110 LIFE AND WORK OF

And there have seldom gathered anywhere a
better, truer, braver company of young people
than responded to these conditional appeals dur-
ing the opening year.

OPENING OF MAINE STATE SEMINARY

FIRST YEAR'S SUCCESS

FINANCIAL PANIC

BRIGHTER DAYS

X

On September ist, 1857, the school opened with
one hundred and thirty-seven students and a corps
of six teachers, O. B. Cheney, Principal. In
addition to being a good instructor Mr. Cheney
possessed other elements of a successful teacher,
dignity of manner, a commanding presence and a
kindly, sympathetic expression of countenance.
He was a natural leader and his years of experi-
ence in teaching had fitted him so to manage
young people, as to win their confidence and
inspire them to do their best. His own ideals
were high and they made their impress.

The other teachers were Prof. G. H. Ricker,
Rev. J. A. Lowell, Miss R. J. Symonds, Precep-
tress, and Misses J. W. Hoyt and M. R. Cushman,
assistants, with Dr. Alonzo Garcelon as lect-
urer upon physiology and hygiene. They had
been wisely selected and their ministrations gave
the school character and influence from the
beginning.

Three hundred and fifty-one students were in
attendance during the first school year, a large
majority of whom were there with the sincere
purpose of fitting themselves for the best possible
manhood and womanhood. Of the work done it
was said at the close of the year :

114 LIFE AND WORK OF

" Thus has passed the first anniversary of
Maine State Seminary, much to the satis-
faction of the Board of Instruction, the
Trustees, the donors to the Institution and
the public at large."

Another writer says :

" The Principal, O. B. Cheney, presided
"with admirable grace and dignity."

The Trustees' report was very commendatory
of the work of the teachers. Among the speakers
at the anniversary dinner were Nelson Dingley,
editor of the Lewiston Journal — later so well
known for his work in the United States House
of Representatives, and Prof. Cilley of Bowdoin
College. The latter complimented the anniversary
exercises by saying :

" Maine State Seminary, although in its
infancy, has this day shown the strength and
manhood of maturity."

Thus, during its first year, the school took a
position of honor among institutions of its kind
in the country and this position it has ever since
retained, for the elements of success which then
attended and placed their stamp upon it have
continued to characterize its life as a college.

FINANCIAL PANIC

While there was so much sunshine on one side
of Mr. Cheney's life during this school year, over

OREN B. CHENEY 115

another side the clouds hung heavily. During
the years 1857 and 1858 our country suffered
from a serious and wide-spread financial panic.
Well established businesses were severely strained.
Well founded institutions suffered. How much
more severe then was the trial to a corporation
like that of Maine State Seminary, that had not
had time to establish itself on secure foundations !
At the time of extreme tension, Mr. Cheney wrote
of the perplexing conditions resulting :

" A nation, like a Christian, lives by faith ;
and by faith I mean, in this instance, con-
fidence of man in man. If fire had attacked
us, we could have stood it, but the smiting of
a panic who can bear ? . . . . Money worth
from two to five per cent a month ; little for
less than twelve per cent per year. I have
some four thousand dollars of bank paper
coming due very soon. I have not a dollar
with which to meet this. I have just returned
home from a two weeks' tour and could
neither beg nor borrow a dollar to meet this.

"Last Tuesday evening I came to the
deliberate conclusion to advertise my house
for sale and if I could find a purchaser, to
pay first my own debts, and all notes I have
signed, and then pay the remainder to those
friends from whom I have borrowed money
for the Seminary, but who have not my sig-
nature, to the last dollar I am worth

I have said that I would go down with Maine
State Seminary, and I will make good that
pledge, if the institution fails. My own

116 LIFE AND WORK OF

brothers and other relatives and friends pro-
test, but I am resolved — no earthly power
can change my purpose. I can be poor, but
no man shall have occasion to reproach the
cause of Christ on my account, if I can help
it. I can have a conscience void of offence
towards God and man and that is wealth
enough for this poor, short life."

A suggestive side-light is thrown upon Mr.
Cheney's life at this time by the following child's
letter :

Mr. Cheney

We are little children now and have
but little money, but when you was at our house
and we saw how sick you was and how hard you
had to work to get money to build the Seminary,
we were afraid it would kill you, and we have
taken a dollar each out of our banks to send to
you. We want to go to the school when we are
old enough.

Yours with much love

A. L. B.

O. V. B.

M. F. B.

The financial prospect was indeed dark, but
kind words of encouragement and promises of
help cheered the workers. Confidence in Mr.
Cheney was shown in many ways, one of which
was his appointment as Treasurer of the Seminary
Corporation. "Nothing succeeds like success,"
and through the students and their parents and
friends the Seminary was continually adding to

OREN B. CHENEY 117

its staunch supporters. Burning appeals were
printed from influential ministers and other
persons of prominence, stating the situation and
pleading for help. At the session of each of the
three Maine Yearly Meetings it was voted to
render aid by assessing members certain amounts.
When the question was asked on one occasion,

" Shall the Seminary fail ?" the replies were :

" No, no, no. Never, never, never."

" Is it worth saving ?"

"Yes, yes, yes," was the response.

The help received through these and other
influences proved sufficient to tide over the crisis ;
and during the years 1858 and 1859 the debt of
$24,000 was paid.

BRIGHTER DAYS

The school year, 1859-1860, was the third from
the opening of the Seminary. Let us try to obtain
a bird's-eye view of it at that stage of develop-
ment. Hathorn and Parker Halls were completed
and furnished with needful apparatus and appli-
ances. The courses of study were well defined
and suited to scholars of different grades and
purposes in life. Classical, scientific, and nor-
mal diplomas were given for the respective
courses. Three literary societies were in active
operation, — the Literary Fraternity, Philomathean
and Ladies' Athenaeum. In September, 1858, a
Christian Union had been organized, with the

118 LIFE AND WORK OF

double purpose of developing Christian lives and
turning attention of students to the Christian
ministry.

In March of the same year a Temperance
Association had been formed. This introduced
no new principle into the school, for, from its
opening, all entering students had been obliged
to promise that, during their school course, they
would abstain from the use of intoxicating liquors ;
and the use of tobacco was not allowed on the
school premises.

In March, i860, the Phillips Missionary Associ-
ation was organized and named in honor of the
Phillips family, so many members of which have
been highly-valued Free Baptist missionaries in
India, and the most brilliant of whom was the
well known and much lamented James L. Phillips,
D.D., Sunday School Missionary for India.

The religious influence in the school was strong
and constant. Among the entries in Mr. Cheney's
diary in i860 are these :

"We had an excellent prayer-meeting this morn-
ing. One young man prayed for the first time."

" Good prayer-meeting. Ten rose for prayers."

" Visited several students and conversed with
them on religion."

Of the method of management of the school,
Mr. Cheney wrote at this time : " The discipline
of the Seminary is on the model of some of the
best Institutions in the country, — the school being

OREN B. CHENEY 119

regarded as a family and the great law of love
recognized as the governing rule. Private as well
as public appeals are made to the consciences of
the students and severe measures will only be
resorted to when such appeals fail."

Arrangements had been made by which it was
possible for persevering students to teach winter
schools and continue with their classes. Those
needing to live economically found every pro-
vision to aid them in boarding-hall and homes.
More than one thousand different students had
already availed themselves of these educational
opportunities and many are the testimonies as to
the bright, happy life in the school.

Rev. G. T. Day, D.D., a prominent Free Baptist
pastor in Rhode Island, and for several years an
influential member of the Providence School Com-
mittee, was at this time Chairman of the Examin-
ing Committee for the Seminary. After a visit to
the school he writes for the Morning Star a glow-
ing description of its situation, buildings and
activities, speaks enthusiastically of its future
prospects and in closing, says :

" Of the Principal, who was not at home, it
were superfluous to say anything, for his plans
and purposes, his patience and perseverance, his
zeal and self-devotion, his trials and successes —
are they not written on the hearts of ten thousand
of his brethren and laid up safely in' the archives
of a grateful memory !"

120 LIFE AND WORK OF

This epitome of the Institution's life may be
understood to cover all the 5'ears of the Seminary's
existence and to characterize in no small degree
the future Bates College.

What reason was there now why Mr. Cheney
might not comfortably occupy the position of
Principal of the Institution, so largely created
by his efforts, go on developing it to its highest
efficiency and cease his earnest struggle for some-
thing hard to attain ?

His position in the ministry still brought to
him many opportunities for public service, not
only in presenting the interests of the Seminary,
but in preaching dedication, installation, and
other occasional sermons. During vacations and
when traveling to secure funds for the school, he
occupied some pulpit nearly every Sunday. He
officiated at many weddings. His home was a
centre of hospitality ; and individuals and repre-
sentatives of churches found welcome as they
came to him for consultation in times of perplexity
or trouble, or for help in advancing the interests
of humanity, for he was generous, not only with
his sympathy but with his money.

He had been elected presiding officer in both
Quarterly and Yearly Meeting sessions. He was
also member of a committee for the publication of
the Free Baptist Quarterly, a theological magazine.
But was he satisfied? The answer is a long one.
He aimed higher.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

COLLEGE NEEDED

OPPOSITION DEFINED

BENJAMIN E. BATES PROMISES FIFTY
THOUSAND DOLLARS

TRUSTEES VOTE IN FAVOR OF A
COLLEGE CLASS

PROFESSOR J. Y. STANTON ELECTED
TEACHER

XI

Conditions of life change so rapidly that, in
order rightly to view the succeeding events, we
must have our thought in harmony with the ideas
of the time of which we are writing. The intense
denominational feeling then existing led people of
all religious beliefs to seek to keep their children
within their own religious fold by sending them
to their own schools. Sharing in the sentiment
of the time, Mr. Cheney was trying to provide for
Free Baptists such a school as other denomi-
nations were maintaining, one that would not
only develop the highest character in individual
students and thus make valuable workers for God
and humanity, but also one that through them
would broaden and strengthen the denomination
in whose faith he had been reared and which he
longed to help.

When, therefore, in i860 he gave the graduating
address to a class of fifteen young men who were
to enter college and realized that he was sending
them away where the influences would not promote
their helpfulness to his own denomination, he felt
a deep concern respecting the result and asked
himself whether he was not thwarting his own
purpose.

In founding the school Mr. Cheney probably
did not have a fully defined purpose to make it a

124 LIFE AND WORK OF

college, but rather the desire to have a school of
higher grade than the ordinary Seminaries. In
the working out of the plan he found that he had
no facilities for giving the advanced work, which
would in any sense take the place of a college edu-
cation. Students were advised by influential
ministers to go directly from the Seminary to the
Biblical School, but Mr. Cheney could not con-
scientiously give such advice. He knew too well
the value of the years of training in a college
course. Therefore perplexed, but seeking light
and guidance, he pondered over the matter as the
months went by.

A bill was before the United States Congress,
appropriating money to Agricultural Colleges.
In 1859, after the debt on Maine State Seminary
was paid, Mr. Cheney carefully considered the
advisability of so changing the curriculum as to
meet the requirements for securing such an ap-
propriation and thus to attain his end in raising
the grade of the school. Through Mr. Cheney's
influence Benjamin E. Bates, a Boston capitalist,
with large manufacturing interests in Lewiston,
had become deeply interested in the school. At
first Mr. Bates warmly seconded the Agricultural
College movement ; but after due consideration
the idea was abandoned, as being likely to thwart
the purpose for which the school was founded.
But the need of a college became continually more
evident.

OREN B. CHENEY 125

In the fall of 1861 a number of students pleaded
with Mr. Cheney to arrange for a Freshman class.
They could see their way to take a college course
only by continuing the economical arrangement
under which they were living. Their pleas stirred
him deeply. He longed to help them, but how ?
Where would he find sympathy in raising money
for the additional teaching force required.

In the following October he gave an address
before the Education Society, at the Free Baptist
Anniversaries, held in Sutton, Vermont. While
returning, he became so profoundly impressed that
he ought to respond favorably to those young
men that he was oblivious of time and distance
during the whole journey. But great events were
absorbing the thought of the nation and Mr.
Cheney held his peace and waited for a more
opportune time to impart his convictions to
others.

CONTEMPORARY EVENTS

In the meantime the country was quivering
with excitement. On April twelfth, 1861, a shot
was fired upon Fort Sumter, that echoed through-
out the land. Young men from the Seminary
began to respond to the call for troops. That
Mr. Cheney himself was intensely stirred is shown
by these entries in his diary :

" The freemen of the north are ready. Slavery
must die. I am ready to die for freedom."

126 LIFE AND WORK OF

" Young men requested permission to raise the
Stars and Stripes at sunrise tomorrow morning
from the top of the Seminary. Of course I granted
permission. I wish they would cover the build-
ings all over with the flag of my country."

" Talked with young men and urged them to be
true to their country and to give their hearts to
Christ."

" Lewiston Light Guards called. Made a speech
to them from the steps of Parker Hall ; also offered
prayer. Brought out lemonade."

Several entries refer to the performance of his
duties as a member of a Safety Committee.*

As the weeks passed, the excitement attending
the Civil War became more and more intense and
Mr. Cheney could not keep away from " the front."
We find him, during a part of the summer vacation
of 1861, serving in the vicinity of Washington, as
a member of the Christian Commission, distrib-
uting tracts and supplies and visiting and com-
forting the soldiers. A few extracts from notes of
this brief service will suffice :

" Visited Camp Jackson. The Maine boys were
glad to see me."

"Saw Lincoln today. Called with the Chaplains."

* The excited state of the country and the unsettled con-
ditions attending the absence from home of the enlisted
men gave courage to the lawless elements in Society and
their depredations led to the organizing of Safety Com-
mittees in nearly all cities, for the purpose of aiding the
officials in maintaining order by day and especially at night.

OREN B. CHENEY 127

" Attended meeting at Dr. P's, where General
Scott worships. Shook hands with him."

" Heard of our defeat (Bull Run). Rained all
day. Thousands of soldiers came into Washing-
ton, many straggling in ; — a sad day, but God
will overrule it."

The letters which Mr. Cheney afterwards
received from the soldier-boys were cherished
during his lifetime.

Before the opening of the fall term the Princi-
pal was back at his post. In passing through
Boston he called on Mr. Bates and secured his
promise of five thousand dollars to aid in build-
ing another Hall, as soon as the times would
warrant.

The following school year was to him one of
mingled interests. His country's cause, especially
that of the freedom of the slaves, lay so close to
his heart that his newspaper articles and diary
are full of the passing events. He felt so fully
assured that the freedom of the slaves was to be
the ultimate result of the war, that he grew im-
patient at what seemed to him President Lincoln's
tardiness in proclaiming their emancipation, and
went to confer with the editor of The Morning
Star, as to the desirability of sending to the
President a Free Baptist memorial, officially
signed, asking for immediate emancipation.

But Mr. Burr replied to him, " Be patient,
Brother Cheney. President Lincoln knows what

128 LIFE AND WORK OF

he is about. He understands all the circumstances
better than we do. He will act at the right time.
Trust him and wait."

President Cheney saw that the editor was
probably right and went back to his school duties.
He was teaching six classes, attending to the
usual detail of school-work, improving the campus
by grading and setting out trees, and all the while
he was pondering over and seeking to solve the
college problem. When the Trustees met in 1862,
a committee of students came before them and
pleaded, some with tears in their eyes, that a
college course be provided, and Mr. Cheney moved
that their request be granted, but it was voted
down. Of the result Mr. Cheney writes :

" At this time I awoke, as from a long
sleep ; I felt that I had been asleep, that the
Trustees were asleep — that the denomination
was asleep and that it was losing many of
its ablest young men. I decided that the
time had come for me to take a firm position
and publicly agitate the matter. Including
the class then on my hands, I had fitted
seventy-seven young men for college in five
years. 'We must have a college,' I said, 'or
in fifty years we shall cease to exist as a
denomination.' As if a trumpet called me, I
started up. I believe it was the call of God.
I did not desire to enter upon this work, —
God is my witness ; I knew well the prej-
udices and the cold looks and the hard
thrusts I must receive, but I did enter upon

OREN B. CHENEY 129

it for Jesus' sake and for the sake of the
denomination I love."

OPPOSITION DEFINED

In order correctly to apprehend the circum-
stances that attended Mr. Cheney's efforts during
a few succeeding years, we must understand some
denominational conditions at that time. Free
Baptists were still prominent actors in the great
reforms. Because of their outspoken position
against slavery, they were often taunted as " Radi-
cals " and "Fanatics." In 1839, they had refused
an accession of twenty thousand Free Communion
Baptists from the south, because there were slave
holders among the latter ; and from that time on
through the years they had hesitated at no sacri-
fice required by a position consistent with their
belief. They preferred to be small in numbers
and true to their convictions. They continued to
occupy a unique position both in regard to
woman's work in the church and in favor of tem-
perance. They had also made good progress in
educational matters. They now had twelve incor-
porated Seminaries or Academies in different
states and a college in Hillsdale, Michigan. The
latter was in a flourishing condition and was an
educational centre for the denomination in the
western and middle states.

It can now easily be seen that a college in New
England was just what was then needed to supply

130 LIFE AND WORK OF

the educational advantages for denominational
balance and development. One man saw it then ;
but at first only a few others. Mr. Cheney's first
experiences in advocating the college interests are
illustrated by a trip into New Hampshire.

"Ten years too soon," said one.

" First complete the endowment of the Biblical
School," said others.

"A college would be well enough, Brother
Cheney, but where is the money coming from ?"
said a Father in Israel in a tone that showed that
the question was settled in the speaker's mind.

At the office of The Morning Star only oppo-
sition was met. The resident editor and publisher
was a shrewd business man and the large expense
of founding a College was quite beyond his finan-
cial vision. Seeing Mr. Cheney's keen disap-
pointment, he said,

" I don't want to hurt your feelings, Brother
Cheney. If you want to write some articles, I
will print them." But when told what was needed
was for The Morning Star to favor the movement
editorially, he said positively that could not be.
(Mr. Cheney's contributions to the paper then
ceased and for several years his name appeared
only in connection with official announcements.)

In the meantime a few leaders in Maine were
stirring up active opposition, and for a time Mr.
Cheney felt as though he were all alone in the
world, his only companion a great purpose. That

OREN B. CHENEY 131

the opposition was local did not make it any the
less serious, for Maine and New Hampshire were
really the key to the situation. The denomi-
nation having originated in southern New Hamp-
shire, it was stronger in those states than else-
where, both numerically and in influence. Again,
as these states would be the ones most largely
benefited by having the college near home, in-
difference or opposition there was a serious
obstacle to interest elsewhere.

It is a common experience in life that people
live in the valley of their special interests and
fail to obtain broad, mountain-top views. This
was true of those who were so absorbed in the
interests of the Biblical School that they failed to
see the need of the College link between that and
the preparatory schools. It was not opposition to
education, so much as lack of foresight and con-
sciousness of present need. This would have
been steadily and rapidly overcome, however, if it
had not been for the course pursued by a very
few individuals.

Goethe says : " There is nothing more oclious
than the majority. It consists of a few powerful
men to lead the way ; and of a mass of men who
trot after them without in the least knowing
their own mind." This is a strong utterance as
applied to this case, but it is without doubt true
that if a few leaders in thought who opposed had
sought to bring to the people the needs of the

132 LIFE AND WORK OF

hour and inspire them with the purpose to meet
them, the immediate result would have been that
much misunderstanding would have been pre-
vented, a great deal of help would have been given
that was withheld, President Cheney would have
been spared keen suffering and the reproach of op-
position would have been saved. But Mr. Cheney
had his eyes too steadily fixed on the goal to be
swerved from his purpose ; and when his friends
asked, " What can you do in the face of so much
opposition ?" his reply in effect was : " Sail on,
sail on, and on and on."

And he kept steadily at work, with the result
that with better knowledge of the movement, its
purpose and the need, friends began to rally to
his support.

It was especially encouraging that at this time
Benjamin E. Bates became the staunch friend of
the College movement. With fine foresight and
hearty appreciation of Mr. Cheney's plans he
promised to give fifty thousand dollars towards a
college on condition that fifty thousand more
could be raised. Thus encouraged and knowing
of the rapidly changing feeling on the part of
several of the Trustees, Mr. Cheney promised
the students that a Freshman class should be
formed in the fall.

OREN B. CHENEY 133

PROF. J. Y. STANTON BECOMES TEACHER

It now seemed a matter of great importance to
him that the right kind of teacher be secured to
aid in starting the college work. Down through
the years Mr. Cheney had retained a pleasant
memory of the bright little boy to whom he taught
Latin in his Lebanon school, and, knowing of his
later success, his purpose was formed, if possible,
to secure " Johnnie " as his assistant. Of the
circumstances Prof. J. Y. Stanton says :

" In the spring of 1863, President Cheney
visited me at Drury, New Hampshire, when I
was Principal of Pinkerton Academy. He
proposed that I should be the Professor of
Latin in the new college. The salary was to
be $800. Without any hesitation I told him
if I were elected I would accept. I was con-
fident that President Cheney could found a
college and I wished to have a part in it. I
was elected by the Trustees in 1863, but did
not enter upon the duties of my professorship
until 1864, when General Grant was pressing
on towards Richmond and when the country
was in the midst of the political campaign
that ended in the second election of Presi-
dent Lincoln."

There were other candidates for the position,
whose interests were urged by influential friends,
but President Cheney was so sure that Professor
Stanton was the right man that he worked

134 LIFE AND WORK OF

earnestly to have the Trustees elect him. The
life-work of usefulness that has followed has shown
the wisdom of the choice.

When the Trustees met in 1863, some influence
had so wrought upon them that they accepted Mr.
Bates's offer, voted to establish a course of collegi-
ate study, petitioned the Legislature for an
enlarged charter, — changing the name to Bates
College, in honor of its generous patron, and
elected Jonathan Y. Stanton professor of Latin
and Greek. An anonymous letter purporting to
come from the wife of a clergyman, attacking Mr.
Cheney because he wished to change the Seminary
to a College, was voted unworthy of notice. This
forward movement of the Trustees laid a solid
foundation on which to build. At a meeting of
the Free Baptist General Conference, held in
Hillsdale in the fall of 1862, the College move-
ment had been denominationally endorsed.

But opposition to any movement once started
is like the rolling snow-ball, that gathers size and
momentum in its progress. The increasing num-
ber of the friends of the College seemed to make
the opposers more determined. Mr. Cheney was
accused of dishonesty in diverting money that
had been raised for a Seminary to a College. A
circular was printed and widely distributed, mak-
ing this formal accusation. As a result of this,
one Maine Yearly Meeting passed resolutions of

OREN B. CHENEY 135

censure.* A report was circulated that Mr. Bates
had never promised to give fifty thousand dollars.
Going to his office one day, Mr. Cheney found
him feeling very indignant at the reported accusa-
tion and determined to withdraw from the whole
enterprise. But Mr. Cheney quietly said to him :

" This is not aimed at you, Mr. Bates. It
is all opposition to me. There are but few
leaders in this movement. Our people as a
whole do not realize the need which I see ;
neither do they understand enough of the
plans to intelligently judge of them. What
we need to do is to go right ahead, paying no
attention to criticism, and in due time they
will see that we are right and your name will
be highly honored for your foresight and
help."

When Mr. Cheney had finished, Mr. Bates
grasped his hand and said : " I will stand by
you, Mr. Cheney ;" and he most nobly honored
his pledge.

Now came the task of raising fifty thousand
dollars with which to meet Mr. Bates's pledge,
and Mr. Cheney went bravely about it. Kind and
sympathetic letters came to encourage him of
which the following is a specimen extract :

" I would do anything I could to encourage you

* Twenty years later, when a large majority of New Eng-
land Free Baptist pulpits were occupied by graduates of
Bates College, these resolutions were expunged from the
minutes and President Cheney was informed of the fact.

136 LIFE AND WORK OF

and aid the noble enterprise now lying on your
hands and heart. Somehow that thing must go. It
seems like a providential summons to a higher
plane of denominational life. It is not humility
but cowardice to abide in the valley when He bids
us to go higher. Help will attend our dutiful
response to this call. If it seems presumption to
risk such an undertaking, I believe it is worse
than presumption to refuse it. A failure even
amid a noble, energetic struggle is far better than
an indolent consent to do nothing. God be with
you in the work.

Yours truly,

Geo. T. Day."

Other letters written with the acid of censure
burned into his soul. One day, when one was
received that was especially unkind, Mrs. Cheney
said, with flashing eyes,

" Oren Cheney, if you don't answer that I
shall."

" But," he replied, " of what use would it be ?
I am still in a minority. The majority do not see
the results to be. If I get into a conflict, the
papers will take it up and bitter discussions will
follow. No, the only course for me is to keep
steadily at work, taking no notice of attacks upon
me and in due time I shall be exonerated and
Bates College will need no excuse for existing."

Not one letter of that stamp was ever answered.
Most of them were at once destroyed. In one
stray one, that escaped the fire, the writer refuses

OREN B. CHENEY 137

in curt language to accede to Mr. Cheney's request
that he attend a meeting and use his influence for
the college, and adds :

" Any scheme or talk about a college, or raising
money in these times, is all nonsense and moon-
shine. You will hardly expect me to go sixty
miles for nothing."

Of these writers President Cheney said :

" They were good men. They had been among
my best friends. I loved them, but we could not
see alike."

Probably this made the suffering from opposi-
tion all the keener. At midnight he walked the
Chapel aisles and struggled with his feelings. In
a sheltered nook in a grove back of the college
buildings he often sought light and strength from
above. Then he worked "on and on and on."

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EARLY COLLEGE DAYS

CO-EDUCATION

INTERWOVEN INCIDENTS

XII

In 1863 President Cheney was honored by the
conferring upon him by Wesleyan University of
the degree of Doctor of Divinity. This was a
timely expression of appreciation. Whatever of
dignity a title can bestow came to his aid in his
early work as College President.

There are reasons why the times were favorable
to founding a college. Beginnings are necessarily
small. Under any circumstances there would be
few students in the first classes. The continual
enlistment of young men and the distraction of
thought connected with the Civil War had
diminished the numbers in all schools ; therefore
the nucleus of a college at Bates attracted less
attention than it would have received under other
circumstances.

The year 1863 was the darkest time of the war.
Then came the Emancipation Proclamation, with
its prophecy of success. In the same month when
this went into effect, — January, 1864, the changed
charter was received from the Maine Legislature,
conferring college privileges and rechristening the
institution as Bates College. This was accom-
panied by a conditional gift from the state to the
College of fifty-one thousand acres of land. The
foundation work for the College was thus laid,
when the thought of the people was mainly

144 LIFE AND WORK OF

directed elsewhere, and, during the following few
years of national disturbance, there was a steady-
development in college plans, preparatory to the
time when life should again flow in ordinary
channels.

The action of the Legislature, above referred to,
had been the result of a hard struggle on Presi-
dent Cheney's part. A few determined opposers
were still trying to thwart his plans. Members of
the Legislature were told : " Brother Cheney is
honest and sincere, but he will fail and do dis-
credit to himself and his denomination." When
told of this, President Cheney replied, " I am
determined not to fail."

GENERAL ITEMS

Prof. Stanton thus pictures for us the College
life in its early days :

" On my arrival I found in the College
proper a Sophomore class, which consisted
of eight members at its graduation, and a
Freshman class of five members. In many
western Institutions the College and prepara-
tory school were combined. President
Cheney thought at first that this could be
done at Bates. But within a year he saw
that, in order for a College in New England
to be a success, it must be an Institution by
itself. In this view all his associates in the
Faculty sympathized with him, but the
Trustees were at first divided in opinion.

OREN B. CHENEY 145

However, in a short time all was harmoni-
ously settled. I do not think that a College
President ever had a more difficult task to
perform, all requiring great courage, firmness
and forbearance, all of which qualities Dr.
Cheney possessed in a marked degree."

In settling this problem President Cheney went
on the principle that for every need there must be
a supply. Pittsfield had been one of the places
originally considered for the location of the Semi-
nary. Mr. Cheney at first thought that the best
thing to do was to remove the Seminary depart-
ment there, and in order to test the feeling of the
people he visited the place and found the senti-
ment so favorable to his purpose that he raised in
the vicinity twenty thousand dollars for carrying
out the plan.

But, when he tested further the feelings of
friends of the College, he saw that another course
would be wiser. The result was that the money
raised at Pittsfield was used in founding there the
Maine Central Institute, which opened for
students in January, 1866, having as Principal,
the first graduate of Bates College, Arthur Given,
and Dr. Cheney as one of its Trustees. It has
continued to be a good feeder to Bates College
and is a school whose beneficent life has been
a blessing to hundreds of young people.

At Lewiston arrangements were soon made to

146 LIFE AND WORK OF

change the Seminary department to a preparatory-
school for the College, and the plan culminated in
the Latin School.

On his graduation from Bowdoin College in
1863 Dr. Cheney's son, Horace, began the work
of founding the Bates College Library, using, to
start with, a gift from his father of one hundred
dollars. A year later the work passed into Prof.
Stanton's hands.

From an " Appeal to the Benevolent," published
in November 1864, we obtain a peep at other
existing conditions. President Cheney says :

" The number of students in attendance
during the past year were three hundred and
twenty-five, twenty-six in the college depart-
ment. The school has sent one hundred and
seventy-five of its young men to the war,
many of them never to return. Bates College
is not standing in the way of any other insti-
tution, but is occupying and cultivating
ground, which before had lain waste. The
College is in a prosperous condition so far as
its means will allow and only lacks funds for
further development."

Among the honored names that composed the
first Bates Board of Fellows, we find those of Hon.
Nelson Dingley and Hon. James G. Blaine ; on
each of whom Bates College subsequently con-
ferred the degree of LL.D.

OREN B. CHENEY 147

CO-EDUCATION

The perplexity of starting a College within a
Seminary had one phase not yet referred to. In
the class ready for the College Freshman vear
there were girls as well as boys — fine scholars,
ready and ambitious to go on, and at first the
boys made no objection ; but the ridicule which
they had to endure from every direction made
them feel that, not only for their own comfort
would it be best for the girls to leave, but it
seemed to their boyish minds an absolute impossi-
bility for the College to be successfully founded
if the girls remained.

The situation was gradually disclosed to the
young women, and after some animated discussions
and dignified protests all of them withdrew, leav-
ing the young men, as was supposed, in undis-
turbed possession of the field.

However, in 1865, there had entered Bates, one
young woman who could not so readily relinquish
the hope that had been awakened by the liberal
charter under which Bates College had been
founded. In spite of the uncongenial atmosphere
in which she found herself, in spite of occasional
slights and constant ill-concealed dissatisfaction
with her presence, she persisted in claiming and
maintaining her right to the opportunities which
broad-minded men had gained for her.

Her unconquerable determination brought to

148 LIFE AND WORK OF

the new and struggling Institution a serious prob-
lem. Its solution was not without many difficul-
ties.

The College had a name to make, a reputation
to establish. There were in the three classes more
than twenty young men. How would they like to
have a woman graduate as their equal ? Public
sentiment would have to be braved. "Woman's
Sphere " had very positive limitations in most
minds. " Higher education for woman " was an
unfamiliar phrase. Could the college afford to
brave the criticisms from other Institutions
because of what would be called an erratic course ?
There were enough slurring remarks already in
circulation among friends of other Colleges about
" Bates Academy." Ordinary judgment would
decide that, in order for the College to be a
success, it must conform to the customs of other
long established Institutions.

On the other hand Dr. Cheney was entirely
ahead of his time in his ideas as to woman's God-
given freedom to do anything for which she has
the ability, and freely expressed in his written
articles his sympathy with her work in reforms of
the day. The school was permeated with the
spirit of a denomination, which had never refused
a worthy woman any service in the church,
whether it was a part in the prayer-meeting, or
ordination to the Christian ministry.

OREN B. CHENEY 149

There was nothing in the charter that inter-
fered, for in changing from Maine State Semi-
nary to Bates College the clause was retained
making the Institution open to young men and
young women.

But beyond and above all was the fact that, if a
woman wanted a college education, there was no
good reason for refusing her the opportunity to
secure it. There could be no personal objection
to Mary W. Mitchell. She was well qualified to
enter and, if character were to be considered, a
young woman, who by working in the mill had
earned money to pay off the mortgage on her
father's farm and then to fit herself for college,
surely showed energy and ability worthy of any
development she desired.

After considering all the arguments on both
sides of this important question, instead of the
negative reply that was given to Mary A. Liver-
more by a New England College President, Mary
W. Mitchell was assured that she was in Bates
College to stay. The crisis thus forced upon the
College by the determination of this young woman
was squarely met, and the doors thus set wide
open for women have never since been closed.

Because of State gifts to the College, the
Governor could confer scholarships on worthy
students. Desiring to help so brave a girl and in
order to be sure of success, President Cheney
went to Augusta and made a personal request to

150 LIFE AND WORK OF

the Governor for a scholarship for his protege.
Being successful, he returned highly elated and
calling Miss Mitchell to him gave her the roll
saying :

" Mary, I have something for you."

She took it, deliberately untied the ribbon,
unrolled it, saw what it was, quietly rolled and
tied it, then giving it back, said :

"I cannot take that, Mr. Cheney. Give it to the
brethren. I can take care of myself." And she did.

That this action by the College faculty was
promptly taken advantage of by opposers is illus-
trated by this little dialogue between friends of
another college :

" How many College students have they down
at Bates Seminary ?"

" Five and a nigger and a woman."*

INTERWOVEN INCIDENTS

It was a strategic movement to have the General
Conference meet in Lewiston in October, 1865.
The gathering of representative Free Baptists from

* The after life of the first woman graduate from a New
England college is worthy of note. She taught in the
Worcester High School, later in Vassar College, afterwards
opened a private school for young ladies, West Chester
Park, Boston. In 1877 she was the poet of the Bates
Alumni Association. Later she married a man of culture
and they lived a very retired life. But her pastor says that
she told him of her twelve years old daughter as equally
at home in reciting Latin Grammar or in making a loaf of
bread.

OREN B. CHENEY 151

all parts of the denomination gave an opportunity
for an understanding of the school, its status,
plans and purposes, which proved very valuable.
Dr. Cheney preached the Conference sermon, of
which a reporter says : " It was listened to with
marked interest and attention." Using for a text,
"A little one shall become a thousand," out of
a full heart the speaker reviewed the history of the
denomination, gave high praise to the noble, self-
sacrificing fathers, detailed the needs for which
the College was founded, and earnestly pleaded
for help and sympathy in its development, with
the result that thereafter Bates College had a
recognized position of influence in the denomi-
nation.

The year 1865 is historically interesting as
marking the close of the war. In the April vaca-
tion of this year, while Dr. Cheney was on a busi-
ness tour, he heard that conditions were reaching
a crisis at the front and hastened on to Washing-
ton. Learning of Lee's surrender, he went the
next day to Richmond and there rejoiced with the
victorious, but with pity for the vanquished brave
he visited and talked hopefully with the Con-
federate prisoners. But the future of another
class of people especially interested him. He
asked himself, " What is to be done with, and for,
the Freedmen, hundreds of whom are flocking
northward ?" His interest in the race had grown,
when at different times in Washington and its

152 LIFE AND WORK OF

vicinity he had attended the churches of the
colored people, had studied their characteristics
and thought about their possibilities ; and his
sympathy for them was such that he would gladly
at this time have given his energies to their
uplifting, but brain and hands were already full.
The College interests would not brook delay, so
he returned to his work.

The country now entered upon a new life with
changed conditions, and for schools a more favor-
able time was at hand. Business and money
would soon move in ordinary channels ; but the
financial work to be done for Bates College was a
heavy one.

Dr. Cheney had now given eleven years of
strenuous work to the Institution, and his physi-
cal forces were beginning to rebel against the
continuous strain. In a " Private Circular " issued
to the Trustees and immediate friends of the
College in January, 1866, Dr. Cheney expresses
thanks for a vote, giving him six months vacation,
but says he has failed to find any one to take the
agency, and he feels that the exigencies are such
that he must forego any rest-time and keep on
with his work at any cost to himself. He says :

" A fourth class of sixteen students will
soon be formed and then full College work
will be going on. There is no time to lose.
Fifty thousand dollars more can be depended
on from Boston parties on condition that

OREN B. CHENEY 153

within three years, one hundred thousand can
be secured. We shall then have in buildings
and site fifty thousand dollars, in cash fund,
including state lands, two hundred thousand
dollars. Under the circumstances I decide
to continue my work without vacation. I am
willing to cut off years from my life, if I can
see the Institution established on a firm foun-
dation."

So he took up again the arduous task of raising
money ; money to complete the thirty thousand,
in order to secure the state appropriation of land ;
money to meet the conditions of the fifty thousand
dollars, pledged in Boston ; money for new build-
ings ; money for additional teachers. Within three
years there were three new professors added to
the teaching force, Rev. Benjamin F. Hayes,
Richard C. Stanley and Thomas L. Angell.

Another branch of President Cheney's work, to
which no reference has been made, was that of
securing students. This had been going on dur-
ing all the years of the Seminary's existence, but
was renewed with increased zeal in the develop-
ment of the College. Many a bright boy, with
longing for an education apparently unattainable,
was encouraged by the President's genial hope-
fulness and inspiring words to undertake a college
course ; and many others, who had not aspired
to a higher education, had their attention turned
to it by the sympathetic touch of a kind hand,

154 LIFE AND WORK OF

the earnest look in smiling eyes, accompanied by,
"You are a bright boy. You ought to go to
college. Come to Bates."

Before starting on his new money-raising tour,
in order to be true to all obligations to the Bibli-
cal School, President Cheney invited the agent of
that school to visit and solicit money in Lewis-
ton, personally giving three hundred dollars
towards the amount raised there. He then him-
self for a short time took the field for that school,
visiting and collecting money in five cities to
help complete the endowment. He then felt that
he could without objection on the part of any
consistently go on with the work of soliciting
money for the college.

It was fortunate for Dr. Cheney at this critical
time that he had such faithful coadjutors in the
College Faculty. Prof. Stanton helps us to obtain
some views from the inside of college life :

" In the early years of the College Presi-
dent Cheney was compelled to be away from
home much of the time. Whatever the
Faculty did in his absence had his hearty
endorsement. He left each instructor free to
do his own work in his own way. If any of
us encountered difficulties in dealing with
students, he was sure to have the sympathy
and support of the President. He made us
feel that he and we were co-operating in
establishing an Institution ; that we were
building as well as he and that he could not

OREN B. CHENEY 155

do without us. He was agreeable, honorable,
and free from self-assertion in his relation
with his associates in the Faculty. It was
characteristic of him not to speak approv-
ingly of one in his presence, but he bore him-
self with us in such a way that we always felt
that we had his approval and confidence. As
a college President, Dr. Cheney was most
lovable.

" He was a man of great faith. He believed
that nothing could absolutely fail that was
good. His faith that God had a work for
Bates College to do was magnificent. He
trusted in God, as few men can, but ' kept his
powder dry.' His confidence was contagious."

PRESIDENT CHENEY VISITS JOHN
STORER

MR. STORER GIVES TEN THOUSAND
DOLLARS FOR A FREEDMEN'S SCHOOL

HARPER'S FERRY SELECTED AS THE
LOCATION

G. H. BALL, D.D., A VALUABLE HELPER

REV. N. C. BRACKETT SECURES A
CHARTER

FIRST BATES COMMENCEMENT

XIII

At the beginning of the year 1867 we find the
country still in the midst of reconstruction. By
an amendment to the constitution slavery had
been abolished throughout the South and three
and a half millions of Freedmen were now self-
dependent. Ignorant, with brain and hand un-
trained, with false ideas of the use of freedom,
their future was causing serious thought, especially
among those who had been anxious for their
emancipation. Reference has already been made
to Dr. Cheney's interest in them. This was now
deepened by the fact that three Maine State
Seminary students had been for more than a year
in the vicinity of Harper's Ferry trying to plant
schools in that historic locality.

About this time, unexpectedly to himself, he
became a factor in the solution of the problem of
negro education. In February, 1867, he went to
see John Storer, at his home in Sanford, Maine.
Mr. Storer had been an interested donor to Bates
College and Dr. Cheney now hoped to secure
another thousand dollars from him, but he found
him so deeply absorbed in a different plan, that
he saw at once that it was an inopportune time to
press the interests of the College.

Mr. Storer was about to make a gift of ten
thousand dollars to some organized body that he

160 LIFE AND WORK OF

could trust to add it to and so manage it that it
would be a permanent blessing to the colored race.
He had the papers spread out before him, pre-
paratory to the execution of the plan. Then,
with sudden foresight, Dr. Cheney saw a great
opportunity, and asked :

" Why not give the money to Free Baptists ?
They have always been true to the interests of the
colored race. Some of their representatives are
already at work establishing schools in the south."
Mr. Storer pondered ; then said :

" I should like to give it to your people, for I
honor them for the position they have taken, but
I fear they are not financially strong enough to
carry on and develop such an enterprise, as it
should be managed." Then followed hours of
talk and careful consideration of ways and means.
The result was reached about midnight and is
concisely stated in Dr. Cheney's diary.

February 6th. " Come to John Storer's. Write
out a plan for a Freedmen's College."

February yth. " Mr. Storer signs the papers,
giving to Free Baptists $10,000 for a Freedmen's
College."

Thus, without any previous purpose, Dr. Cheney
was instrumental in giving to Free Baptists one of
their most important and fruitful fields of labor
and he became a helper in inaugurating a move-
ment which has proved to be an inestimable

OREN B. CHENEY 161

blessing to large numbers of the negro race, and
through them to our country.

In his April vacation we find President Cheney
in West Virginia, consulting with Rev. N. C.
Brackett and wife and Annie Dudley, the pioneer
representatives of Maine State Seminary, already
at work there. After visiting and considering
many different localities, all agreed that the
vicinity of Harper's Ferry was the most desirable
location for the proposed school. Much property
in the vicinity was owned by the government.
When it was proposed to ask for the gift of the
Lockwood House, — a large structure somewhat
riddled with shells, — President Cheney said :

" Ask Congress for all Camp Hill and take what
you can get."

Then came one of the results of Dr. Cheney's
close touch with political life in Augusta. His
friends in Congress, including the Maine Senators,
Fessenden and Morrill, knew that his efforts in
the past had been crowned with success. His
diary for April gives us these items :

April 14. " Speak to the colored people."

April 16. " Call on Senators Fessenden and
Morrill and General Howard with great success."

April 20. "Met Secretary Stanton. He is
favorable."

Rev. N. C. Brackett, Ph.D., states the result
thus:

162 LIFE AND WORK OF

" A bill had been introduced in the Senate,
providing for the sale of the two great water
powers and all that was left of the United
States Armory and Rifle Works at Harper's
Ferry, including many valuable houses and
much land. One section of the bill donated
to certain churches, schools and benevolent
orders lots of land previously leased to them.

" The bill had been referred to the Military
Committee, of which General Henry Wilson
was chairman. He allowed Senator Fessen-
den to take the bill to examine and amend,
and in his room Dr. Cheney remodeled the
section providing for gifts so as to include
Storer College, giving to her four lots. Con-
servative brethren had told me to ask for
one. We violated instructions and asked for
four. The section written out by Dr. Cheney
became a law without the change of a letter.
Strangely enough, Dr. Cheney's name figures
in hundreds of deeds in the records of Jeffer-
son county, as the first deed was to Oren B.
Cheney and others."

The gift included four government buildings
and seven acres of land on Camp Hill, the latter
being then consecrated by the graves of three
hundred Union soldiers. The location is a beauti-
ful one, between the Potomac and Shenandoah
rivers. It overlooks the scene of John Brown's
raid and commands a view of the heights where
Union and Confederate soldiers battled so bravely.
Upon Rev. N. C. Brackett, who seemed divinely
called to, and was eminently fitted for the work,

OREN B. CHENEY 163

the responsibility then rested of devising plans
for and developing the school.

April 26th, President Cheney reached home,
having on the way awakened an interest in the
project in parties in Harrisburg, New York, Provi-
dence and Boston, and having done a month's
work of far-reaching value.

The New Hampshire Yearly Meeting was at
that time one of the most important of Free
Baptist gatherings ; owing to its position as a
numerical centre, persons having important
denominational business attended it, if possible.
There President Cheney went early in June to
announce the conditional gift of Mr. Storer and
the result of his trip to Washington and to plan
for raising the money required to secure Mr.
Storer's pledge. Dr. G. H. Ball was at once
enthused with the project and became an earnest
worker in carrying it out. Many others gladly
endorsed the movement, but, — it is strange that a
" but " must lie across the path of all onward
movements — but a few failed to see the possi-
bilities promised. One of these doubters asked
another :

" What does Cheney want now ? "

" Oh, he is trying to build another railroad to
the moon," was the reply.

Through a sleepless night Doctors Ball and
Cheney considered plans for raising the $10,000
required to meet Mr. Storer's pledge. But they

164 LIFE AND WORK OF

were not allowed to present these plans to the
Yearly Meeting. They were not disheartened,
however. Dr. Ball soon after presented the matter
before a New York Yearly Meeting, where such
enthusiasm was aroused that he entered the field
as a financial agent for the school.

Dr. Cheney's next move was towards securing
a charter which must be obtained in West Vir-
ginia, and wrote one and sent it to Prof. Brackett.
So great was the opposition, however, on the part
of the residents of Harper's Ferry and vicinity to
having a school located there that should be eli-
gible to colored people, that it was uncertain when
the charter could be obtained. In order to hold
the property in the meantime, Dr. Cheney secured
for the purpose the appointment by the New
Hampshire Legislature of a Commission, with
which he was officially connected.

When, in due time, Rev. N. C. Brackett, by the
exercise of rare tact succeeded in obtaining favor-
able action upon the charter from the West Vir-
ginia Legislature, Dr. Cheney signed the deed
passing the property over to the new corporation.
Although he continued to be a helper in develop-
ing Storer and was a member of the Board of
Trustees during his lifetime, his main work for it
was in its beginning.

OREN B. CHENEY 165

FIRST BATES COMMENCEMENT

It must have been a happy day for President
Cheney, when in July 1867 he presided at the
first Bates College Commencement. It is true
there were but eight graduates from the College
department, but they were men of whom any
college might be proud, and, judged from a high
standard of value, have paid in Christian service
far more than all the college has cost the Free
Baptist denomination.

The class certainly made up in courageous
spirit what it lacked in numbers. The members
arranged for a concert on Tuesday evening of
Commencement week which attracted wide notice,
for they sent to New York for Dodworth's band,
at an expense of $1,200.

As this was then the most noted band in the
country and the event was such an unusual one
for Lewiston at that time, the boys were able to
place the tickets at two dollars each. As one of
the class declared in a speech at a late Commence-
ment dinner, " by the interest of the citizens and
a special interposition of divine Providence the
expenses were nearly covered."

The class thus established a memorial to
itself, for a high class Tuesday evening concert
has been a feature of Commencement week ever
since.

The report of this Commencement in The

166 LIFE AND WORK OF

Morning Star was the first article of importance
sent by Dr. Cheney since the college movement
began. Success was now too well assured for
opposers to make reply.

IMPORTANT BEGINNINGS

EFFECT OF CIVIL WAR ON STATUS OF
WOMEN

THE BAPTIST UNION

XIV

The Free Baptist General Conference, held in
Buffalo in 1868, was notable for two movements
which have an intimate connection with this
narrative. One was the consideration of a plan
to remove the Biblical School from New Hampton
to a more central locality and one better suited to
its needs. President Cheney and some of his
friends had felt for some time that it would be far
better for that school to be closely related to a
College, because of the many additional facilities
thereby secured.

The result of the discussion at the 1868 General
Conference was the decision by the Education
Society to divide the endowment money of the
Biblical School between Bates and Hillsdale Col-
leges, with due regard to the proportion raised in
their respective localities. Bates, on its part, was
to provide a suitable building and three additional
professors. This action culminated in 1870, and
thereafter Bates College has had a theological
department, from which have graduated at least
one hundred and fifty ministers.

The other matter before the Buffalo Conference
was a plan to organize the denominational work
on a more business-like and systematic basis, by
having the body incorporated and thus made

170 LIFE AND WORK OF

legally able to hold and administer the property
then held by the different Benevolent Societies.

At the previous General Conference in Lewis-
ton, Doctors Ball and Cheney had mutally agreed
that such an organization would make all denomi-
national plans more effective. Dr. Ball there
presented a resolution favoring it. Dr. Cheney
spoke in its interest and it was referred to a Com-
mittee. At the Buffalo Conference Dr. Ball re-
ported for the Committee an act by the New
York legislature, incorporating the Free Baptist
General Conference. Dr. Cheney led in its sup-
port. It failed of adoption by three or four votes,
but its friends knew its ultimate victory was only
a question of time.

Six years later at the General Conference of
1874, sympathy with the movement led to the
appointment of a Conference Board of seven mem-
bers. This Board was to act " in the interim
between sessions in conducting correspondence
and promoting fellowship and union with other
Christian denominations and also to receive reso
lutions and other business to lay before Con-
ference, with such suggestions as shall be deemed
expedient." Of this Board Dr. Cheney was elected
Chairman. It entirely failed, however, to embody
the thought of the leaders, and they continued
their efforts to secure the incorporation of the
body.

OREN B. CHENEY 171

EFFECT OF CIVIL WAR ON STATUS OF WOMEN

Two other movements, with the initiation of
which Dr. Cheney was connected, were interwoven
with conditions following the Civil War.

One was the organizing of work among women.
For some years before the war, conditions had
been gradually changing, so as to increase the
opportunities of women for development.

Among Free Baptists, as early as 1847, there
had been organized " The Freewill Baptist Female
Missionary Society," which continued a useful
life for more than twenty years.

Although no objection would have been made,
had the officers seen fit to conduct their public
meetings, they yielded to the custom of the times
and called upon " the brethren " to assist them.

Mrs. O. B. (Nancy P.) Cheney was the first
Recording Secretary and her husband was repeat-
edly called upon to read her reports. After her
resignation he continued to " help those women "
in various public capacities. At the General Con-
ference, in Lewiston, in 1865, he presided over
one of the largest public meetings held by them.
But the Society lacked the vigor which attends an
independent, responsible life and its work was
gradually discontinued.

The Civil War wrought a wonderful change in
the status of women. During its continuance they
organized everywhere to minister to the needs of

172 LIFE AND WORK OF

the soldiers. Week after week they met to scrape
lint, make bandages and garments and talk of
something outside of their own lives. Some went
to " the front," to serve in various capacities. At
home thousands were obliged to step out of the
ruts of their lines and on farms, in stores and in
business of almost every kind, they learned their
power. It was an epoch-making time. Never
again could life for women flow in its old channels.
Beginning in the late sixties and continuing
through the seventies, women organized for Mis-
sion work in almost every Christian denomination.
The Woman's Christian Temperance Union and a
large number of other philanthropic enterprises
came into being at the same time. This decade
will be full of rich nuggets for future historians.

In 1873 the Free Baptist Woman's Missionary
Society superseded the former organization, pat-
terned on a much broader plan. Dr. Cheney was
one of the most interested and sympathetic ob-
servers of this new movement. He was often an
attentive listener at the exercises, conducted
entirely by the women ; he made his wife a life
member of the Society, and later obtained for it a
charter from the Maine Legislature. Ten years
after we shall find an important movement result-
ing from his continued study of their work.

Another result of the Civil War was the lower-
ing of denominational walls. Chaplains for the
army had been appointed with small regards to

OREN B. CHENEY 173

creeds, and " the boys " in camp or hospital cared
little about the sectarian name of the man who
comforted and helped them. During the recon-
struction period that followed the war, new homes
were often established in places where it was
impossible to continue the old denominational
relations. Added to this, there was a natural
growth in breadth of thought; all of which
resulted in movements to establish more sym-
pathetic relations between Christians of different
names.

Among Free Baptists one of the outgrowths of
this was the publication in New York of the
Baptist Union, an eight page weekly, which from
187 1 through six volumes spoke strong, true words
as to the duty of all Baptists to unite their forces.
Although this was a private enterprise, founded
and developed by Rev. G. H. Ball, D.D., aided by
a local Board of Publication, hearty sympathy and
financial aid were received from many Free Bap-
tists, especially in New York and the Central
States. Although President Cheney was too
deeply absorbed in his own life work to become
active in this movement, Dr. Ball says :

" While I was publishing the Baptist Union
and advocating the union of all Baptists on
the basis of church independence and entire
freedom for each church to practice restricted,
or unlimited communion with Christians
at the Lord's table, Dr. Cheney heartily

174 LIFE AND WORK OF

approved, and, when the matter came up in
General Conference, he always defended the
position advocated by the paper."

But some devoted friends of The Morning Star
became more and more opposed to the Baptist
Union, feeling that an effort for denominational
union was premature and that Free Baptists were
not strong enough to support two papers. Dr.
Cheney saw with clear vision both sides of the
question ; that the principles being advocated
were right and must ultimately prevail, but that
under existing conditions, it would be impossible
for Free Baptists to see alike about the matter.

Because of his attitude he was appealed to by
parties on both sides of the question for leader-
ship of their respective views. In response, he
tried his best to secure some action that would
result in harmony. He met in consultation with
New York friends and with those representing
The Morning Star. He himself called a meeting
of eight or ten men of differing views, but failing
to secure desired action he says, at its close, " I
stood alone."

Then by letters, he sounded notes of warning,
in order to avert the clash, which he saw was
imminent at the coming General Conference at
Providence, R. I.

As a result of his position, although he received
" some hard thrusts " from extremists, earnest

OREN B. CHENEY 175

opposers to each other retained their respect for
his judgment, and he was the constant adviser of
parties representing both sides, until the final
settlement by the union of the papers in 1877.

SUCCESS

DISASTER

DIFFICULTIES SURMOUNTED

AFTER TEN YEARS

A CHARACTER SKETCH

XV

President Cheney was now putting forth his
best efforts to advance the financial interests of
the College. The sympathy felt for him by
persons with whom he had been allied in reforma-
tion movements is shown by the letter of intro-
duction, on the pages following, from Henry Ward
Beecher.

In connection with a trip to Florida in 1869 to
inspect property that had come into possession of
the College, there were many interesting experi-
ences. In Washington he received gratifying
assurances of aid from James G. Blaine and other
prominent persons.

A woman, prominent in philanthropy, once said
to Dr. Cheney : " I never saw any one like you,
Oren Cheney ; if anything happens, you are sure
to be there." This saying had many confirma-
tions ; among them the fact that while on his trip
in Washington, he heard the discussion in the
U. S. Senate on the fifteenth Amendment to the
Constitution. On his return trip, he heard Presi-
dent Grant's inaugural address.

Note — Something of what Bates College was passing
through at this time is indicated by the following item
published in a Maine paper : " The attention of that one-
horse Institution, Bates, is called to the erratic conduct of
' James G. Blaine ' who was here on Tuesday as busy as the
devil in a gale of wind. A LL.D. ought to be more
dignified."

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182 LIFE AND WORK OF

He visited friends in prominent cities of the

coast states. At Raleigh he says : " Col. said

to me : ' We will make up fifteen or twenty thous-
and dollars for you if we prosper.' "

In Boston much financial encouragement was re-
ceived. President Cheney's notes say : " Mr. Bates
is ready at any time, if we will get $25,000 more."
On the whole the trip was a very gratifying one,
and is a type of many others which followed.

DIFFICULTIES SURMOUNTED

In the early seventies, College matters required
much tactfulness for their adjustment. We have
already explained the removal to Lewiston of the
Biblical School. This was attended with the
usual amount of friction caused by change in a
school location. Local interests in New Hamp-
shire protested. Individuals opposed, as in the
instance of the man who demanded if the school
go to Lewiston, the $3,000, which he had given be
returned to him. Legal questions were also
raised, which required time and tact for their
settlement.

Maine State Seminary had been virtually re-
moved to Pittsfield, but it took time and energy
to aid in adjusting the affairs of the new school,
and we find President Cheney often there in con-
sultation with the Trustees.

The Nichols Latin School, which was to take

OREN B. CHENEY 183

the local place of Maine State Seminary as a pre-
paratory school for the College, had now a build-
ing of its own on a lot adjoining Bates College
campus, and between the lines must be read what
it had meant to secure land, building and other
accessories.

In 1870 we find President Cheney negotiating
for more teachers and soon after, Professor G. C.
Chase and J. H. Rand were added to the faculty,
both having been successful teachers since their
graduation from Bates, the former in its second
and the latter in its first class. President Cheney
soon saw in Prof. Chase the qualifications which
made him his choice as his successor.

AFTER TEN YEARS

The Commencement of 1873 was tne tenth from
the forming of the first College Class. President
Cheney's text for his Baccalaureate sermon was,
"First the blade," with the purpose that ten
years later in 1883, he would use the next phrase
"then the ear," and in 1893 the concluding one
" after that the full corn in the ear." This plan
was carried out. During these first ten formative
years there had been seventy-seven college gradu-
ates. As but two of these were women, it shows
that " the sisters " were not yet ready to crowd
their brothers in academic halls.

The foundations of the College may now be

184 LIFE AND WORK OF

said to be well laid and it started on a broader
life with constantly improving facilities, a hopeful
financial outlook and with an entering class which
graduated eighteen young men. President
Cheney's diary now had many items of re-
joicing.

In 1874 enough money had been raised to meet
Mr. Bates's conditions and he not only paid in the
$75,000 which completed his first $100,000, but
he pledged $100,000 more on the same conditions
as before. What a pity that Free Baptists and
others to whom the College was to be such a
blessing could not have seized the opportunity
and secured this gift at once, by helping the tired
President whose twenty years of service were
beginning to wear upon him severely !

To his diary he often confided his feelings :

" Oh, I am tired, tired."

" Sick all night."

" Leave home sick. Go to write the will of
Miss who makes a gift to the College."

We see him, however, still finding a safety-valve
in his interest in other matters. One day's entry
in his diary shows us this :

" Waiting for Mr. Bates's return. Attended the
celebration of the Anniversary of Emancipation
and heard Sojourner Truth."

" How sad that Gov. A. took the course he did
on prohibition ! "

OREN B. CHENEY 185

A CHARACTER SKETCH

Another side light is thrown on President
Cheney's character by the following little incident
of travel : " The sleeper was full of weary people,
trying in vain to find repose, for the wails of an
infant that would not be appeased, rose above the
noise of the train. Finally an exasperated man
thrust his head between the curtains and blurted
out :

" ' Keep that young one still, won't you ? '

" ' I am doing the best I can, gentlemen,' came
in the subdued tones of a man's voice. ' The
baby's mother is in her coffin in the baggage car,
and I am taking the little fellow to his grand-
mother. I am doing the best I can, gentlemen.'

" The pathos of the situation at once appealed
to Dr. Cheney's heart and he was soon beside the
man's berth. ' Let me try,' he said. Cuddling
the baby in his arms, for a long time he walked
the car aisle back and forth, back and forth,
softly singing ' Bonnie Doon,' and other sooth-
ing melodies. The little one's sobs became less
and less frequent. Fixing on Dr. Cheney's face
wide-open, wondering eyes, he listened and became
quiet. Finally the lids slowly closed and peace
reigned in the car the remainder of the night."

VACATION EXPERIENCES

PRESIDING OFFICER

LETTER BY L. W. ANTHONY

XVI

In 1875, Mr. Bates assured President Cheney
that he had secured to the College by will his new
pledge of $100,000; and the diary comment is :
"I could not sleep for joy." It now seemed that
conditions were such that the President might
take the long-postponed and much needed vaca-
tion ; and in 1876 he went to Europe for a season
of travel and study.

After some weeks spent in visiting places of
interest he had just settled down to study in
Paris, when news came of the serious illness of
his son. That evening he started on his return
trip and reached the homeland in time to spend a
few precious hours with the loved one, to hear
him say :

" I am not afraid to leave myself in God's
hands, father," then — separation, loneliness.

Horace had been Assistant District Attorney
for Suffolk County, Massachusetts ; and at the
time of his death was in legal practice for himself.
He was a member of the Board of Fellows of
Bates College. His father was depending on him
for advice in matters of law and looked to him as
a prop in his declining years. Father and son
had always been closest companions and Dr.
Cheney's heart-ache for his boy ceased only with

190 LIFE AND WORK OF

his own life. The little granddaughter, Bessie,
was ever held in tenderest affection.

We draw the veil over the days of sacred retire-
ment, which followed, but out of the shadows he
came with form slightly bowed, with hair per-
ceptibly whitened, but with the old purpose in
life strong and true, and the many interests
already referred to soon crowded his time full.

PRESIDING OFFICES

When, at the Maine Yearly Meeting in 1877,
Dr. Cheney was again elected as delegate to
General Conference, he made this note : " I have
never in my life used any influence to go, never
said to any one, ' I would like to go,' never
solicited a vote."

At this General Conference, held in Fairport,
N.Y., he was chosen Moderator. Considering the
sharp differences of opinion, as to denomi-
national policy which had existed since the pre-
ceding General Conference, Dr. Cheney's election
at this time was highly complimentary. The trust
in him was fully honored. His native ability and
ease in presiding, his familiarity with parliamen-
tary methods and rules, his kindly effort to afford
all parties fair play, gave general satisfaction, and
the session proved successful and harmonious.
The wide-spread feeling of concern which pre-
ceded this General Conference and the feeling of
relief which followed cannot be better expressed

OREN B. CHENEY 191

than by a quotation from a letter sent to Dr.
Cheney by a prominent layman :

Providence, Oct. 20, '77.
Bro. Cheney,

Dear Sir :

Although not able to be present at
General Conference, I felt a deep interest in it,
and in conversation with some of the delegates,
expressed the desire that you might be chosen
Moderator. Was much pleased in reading of the
doings of the Conference and particularly with
the wisdom shown in the make-up of the com-
mittees, but most of all in your remarks at the
close of the Conference, I want to thank you for
them. They would have been worth to me a trip
to Fairport. All I have seen that were in attend-
ance, speak of it as being the most harmonious
session they ever attended. Let us take courage
and press on.

Yours

L. W. Anthony.

O. B. Cheney

About 1880

DEATH OF BENJAMIN E. BATES

SECOND EUROPEAN TRIP

DELEGATE TO ENGLISH BAPTISTS

WINE-DRINKING INCIDENTS

XVII

The following entry in President Cheney's diary
for January 15, 1878, tells a thrilling story: "Mr.
Bates died last night of heart disease. Oh, what
a blow to the College ! My best friend gone ! God
save the College ! Called on Mrs. Bates."

The diary entries for a time are too sacred to
quote. Day after day found President Cheney
meditating and praying by Mr. Bates's grave in
Mt. Auburn. There was something unique, some-
thing beautiful in the friendship between these
two men.

If under God's guidance O. B. Cheney was a
leader in a much needed educational work, Benja-
min E. Bates was equally led in his purpose to
stand by him financially.

For ten years President Cheney had known
that when nobody else understood his plans, he
had but to lay them before Mr. Bates to find a
sympathizer. When shortness of vision led any
to criticise, he knew where to find a friend whose
foresight matched his own. When money failed
from expected sources, Mr. Bates was always
resourceful in helping.

Dr. Cheney's diaries probably record but in
part the many times when he went to Mr. Bates,
sorely burdened and came away relieved and
hopeful.

196 LIFE AND WORK OF

But O. B. Cheney knew that his work was not
done. He fully believed that the Helper under
whose guidance he had worked thus far, never
leaves his own. By provision of Mr. Bates's will
$100,000 were assured to the College. The
$100,000 required to meet this legacy was soon
raised or pledged. Mr. Bates's life-purpose had
been so generally understood that it seemed im-
possible that there could be any failure in the
payment of this legacy.

SECOND EUROPEAN TRIP

By action of the Fairport General Conference,
Dr. Cheney had been elected a delegate to the
General Baptist Anniversaries held in Halifax,
England; and in October, 1878, he again went to
Europe, with the double purpose of filling his
position as delegate and of completing the tour,
so suddenly cut short two years before. During
the President's absence on this and the preceding
foreign trip, Professor B. F. Hayes acted as Presi-
dent of Bates College. Hon. Nelson Dingley,
LL.D., and Mrs. Dingley were Dr. Cheney's travel-
ing companions. As Mr. Dingley was a pro-
nounced total abstainer, they had many sym-
pathetic experiences. The belief, then extant,
that it was not safe to travel on the continent
without the use of wine, often obliged these
friends to assert their principles. One day a
lady, who had been especially persistent in urg-

OREN B. CHENEY 197

ing President Cheney to drink wine with her,
said to him, " Now, Dr. Cheney, do you really
think it would hurt you to sip a little wine ?"
Sitting back in his chair and looking at her
steadily with a kindly but firm expression, he
said : " Madam, I have never used wine, or any
other intoxicant, and I could not respect myself if
I began now. Besides, I am President of a
College which requires a pledge of total absti-
nence from each entering student. If I were ever
to raise a glass of wine to my lips, in some way
the word would go back and not only would I
have lost my self-respect, but my influence would
be destroyed. You must excuse me, madam."
She asked his pardon and left him in peace.

EXPERIENCES AS DELEGATE

In his address as delegate to the General Bap-
tists of England, Dr. Cheney awakened enthusiasm
by referring to the influence of their representa-
tive, Dr. Sutton, in inspiring Free Baptists to
enter upon Foreign Missionary work ; but when
he stated that his denomination did not ordain to
the Christian ministry any man who used intoxi-
cating liquors, it created quite a sensation. When
a member made a motion of thanks for his
address, another member arose and said he could
not vote for the motion, lest it be interpreted as
approving the course of the United States
brethren in regard to licensing candidates, for

198 LIFE AND WORK OF

there was but one door to the church and that
Christ. A spirited discussion followed, lasting
nearly all day, resulting finally in an almost unani-
mous vote of thanks, and being generally under-
stood as a decided victory for temperance. The
temperance reform had then made but little prog-
ress in England, and the reports occupying
several columns in the daily papers attracted wide-
spread attention.

The weeks of travel which followed were full of
interest and profit to President Cheney. He had
no more unique experience than when he stood
on Mars Hill on the spot reputed to have been
occupied by Saint Paul and preached a sermon to
an invisible audience.

DARK DAYS

On Dr. Cheney's return to the homeland he
found that there was cause for much anxiety as to
the outcome of the contested will of Mr. Bates.
Then followed a time of sleepless nights, efforts to
secure money and constant alertness in conferring
with legal advisers. It seemed as if the very life of
the College were at stake. How severe was the
blow when the report of the commissioners was
finally received ! It allowed the payment of a sum
due on previous pledges, but disallowed the
$100,000 pledge. As many people had given
money with the provision that it was to help
secure Mr. Bates's pledge, serious additional losses

OREN B. CHENEY 199

were threatened and it was thought best to carry
the matter to the Supreme Court of Massachusetts.
Some who had been afraid President Cheney
was going ahead too fast showed the " I-told-you-
so " spirit. But the large majority rallied to his
support and sustained him by their sympathy and
hopefulness. This was especially true of the noble
men who composed the Bates College Faculty.
They were hard workers, on small salaries, but not
a man flinched. With one accord, they encouraged
him with sympathy and offers of help. Dr.
Cheney said in a letter :

" When members of the Faculty said to me,
' the College shall not fail in any event,' it
lifted from me a great burden ; and so I say,
'the God of heaven, he will prosper us.' "

The same courageous spirit was voiced by the
Alumni. One writes :

" My faith in the ultimate triumph does not
waver. None of your labor will be lost. In
the Providence of God you have been the
means of starting a great work, which will
surely live. If the younger friends of the
College can be half as single and devoted as
you have been, I shall be satisfied."

During the two following years, the will case
was in the courts, with the result that the Judge
of the Supreme Court gave a final decision in
favor of the contestants. President Cheney's
diary note for September 6, 1883, is:

" Chosen delegate to General Conference at

200 LIFE AND WORK OF

Minneapolis. Hear of the decision of the Massa-
chusetts Court, losing the $100,000. Well, God
will take care of the College."

The blow was so severe as at first to be almost
stunning, but with sublime faith the President
rallied and worked " on and on and on." With
the Supreme Court decision the strain and stress
of years were over. Nothing remained but to
make more heroic efforts.

Like a ray of sunshine thwart the darkness was
the following letter of appreciation of Bates Col-
lege, written by the scholar and philanthropist,
Wendell Phillips :

I am familiar with the history of Bates College
and acquainted with its officers. In the old times
of bitter pro-slavery feeling the College gave
earnest and effective support to the anti-slavery
movement and was among the very first to open
its doors to the colored man. Since then it has
shown the same liberal spirit touching the equal
education of women, being, I believe, the very first
to graduate a woman from its classes.

The Institution deserves well of New England
and ought to have all the aid it needs to make
still more thorough and complete the opportuni-
ties it has always offered to those seeking, at a
moderate cost, a thorough preparation for private
usefulness, public service and the duties of Chris-
tian citizenship.

Wendell Phillips, Boston.
3 Dec, 1881.

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FREE BAPTIST CENTENNIAL

OCEAN PARK
COLLEGE EXTENSION PLAN

XVIII

When President Cheney returned from his trip
abroad, another matter of importance was claim-
ing his attention. His denomination was about
to celebrate its Centennial. As Moderator of the
last General Conference and as Chairman of the
Conference Board, he was one of the responsible
parties in deciding upon location, program and
other matters needful to its success.

The Centennial was held at The Weirs, on Lake
Winnipiseogee, no church being able to accom-
modate so large a gathering. It was connected
with the session of General Conference of 1880
and was the most important and largely attended
assembly that had ever been held by Free
Baptists. Dr. Cheney was elected Moderator.
Dawson Burns, D.D., Metropolitan Superintendent
of the United Kingdom Alliance, a great British
Temperance Organization, was one of the English
delegates present. In an appreciative article in
The Morning Star, Dr. Burns says :

"Both my colleague and myself were struck
with the tact and urbanity he displayed, in
discharging, day by day, the difficult duties
of his office. It was impossible to know Dr.
Cheney, however slightly, without perceiving
him to be a man of rare ability and of the
finest character."

The whole session was an inspiring and success-

208 LIFE AND WORK OF

fill one and was fruitful of new enterprises, that
have since been of much denominational value.

OCEAN PARK

One of the most important of these was the
inauguration of a movement, through the initia-
tion of Rev. E. W. Porter, then of Lowell, Mass.,
to establish a Free Baptist summer resort, which
should provide for physical, intellectual and spirit-
ual improvement. Dr. Cheney was a member of
the Committee to carry out the plan. After ex-
amining many localities, a strip of land was
secured near Old Orchard, Maine. Dr. Cheney
always remembered with interest the day when
the Committee walked across sand and marsh, up
to the beautiful pine grove, at the entrance to
which the temple was to be located, and all kneeled
with bared heads while Rev. Silas Curtis offered a
prayer, dedicating the grounds to holiest service.

An association was organized with Dr. Cheney
as President. This office he held for four years.
As Chairman of the Board of Directors, he gave
much time and thought to the development of this
unique and delightful summer home, which em-
bodies so many helpful features, as to be sur-
passed by few such resorts in the country.

COLLEGE EXTENSION PLAN

With Bates College interests always uppermost
in his thought, President Cheney had a plan from

OREN B. CHENEY 209

the beginning of the Ocean Park movement, by
which he hoped to extend the College influence.
He purchased a block of centrally-located lots,
opposite a park reservation. College Extension
in the form of summer meetings, lectures and
schools, was then in its infancy. The President
saw that the proximity of Bates College to Ocean
Park afforded a favorable opportunity for the
College to be early in the field in such work. But
the financial disasters which came to Bates in the
early eighties hindered the development of the
new enterprise.

Later, the interests of the Boston and Maine
Railroad, in building up Ocean Park, seemed
likely to become a factor in the realization of his
plan ; but on the day Dr. Cheney was to have a
decisive meeting with the President of the road,
word came of the serious illness of the latter and
death once more thwarted large plans. Soon after,
the Chautauqua movement became a part of the
Ocean Park educational system and the College
plan was superseded.

The house which Dr. Cheney had built as a
part of the College Extension system, and painted
garnet, the College color, became his summer
home during his life, and his interest in the
development of Ocean Park continued to the end.
As late as 1900, he went to Augusta for an effort
to secure what seemed to him desirable legislation
in its behalf.

EFFORTS FOR CHRISTIAN UNION

PLANS FOR MORE EFFECTIVE MISSION-
ARY WORK

BEREAVEMENT

XIX

In chapter XIII reference was made to Dr.
Cheney's interest in two movements which
followed the Civil War. Ten years had passed
with ripening plans. As already noted it was the
duty of the Conference Board, of which he was
Chairman, to " promote fellowship and union with
other Christian denominations." As Moderator
of the General Conferences in 1877 and 1880, Dr.
Cheney was led to think much about denomi-
national development. He had seen that the
time had not come for the union of Free Baptists
and the Baptist body, but he was very hopeful
that some union might be effected between differ-
ent open-communion bodies, which agreed in the
essentials of Christianity. In advocacy of this
idea Dr. Cheney sent articles to different papers,
which elicited cordial responses from many
sources. A wide correspondence followed, not
only among Free Baptists, but with broad-minded
persons in several denominations, including the
Disciples of Christ, the Christian, the Church of
God and the Free Baptists of New Brunswick.

There was so much expressed sympathy with
the movement that it almost seemed as if success
were assured. A convention resulted, which was
held at Minneapolis, in 1883, on the day preced-
ing the Free Baptist General Conference. It was

214 LIFE AND WORK OF

not a delegated body, but there were representa-
tives present from the different denominations
concerned. Dr. Cheney was elected President.

Ways and means were discussed relating to
immediate union in Missionary and some other
lines of work, with the hope of promoting ultimate
organic union. Those present were empowered
to report the Convention to their respective
bodies and the session closed with large hope of
important results.

At the ensuing Free Baptist General Conference
the spirit of the Convention was plainly felt.

Dr. Cheney was serving a second term as Re-
cording Secretary of the Free Baptist Foreign
Missionary Society and was one of the most active
members of its Executive Board.

As the result of the Convention just held he
was very hopeful of almost immediate union in
Missionary work among the open-communion
bodies.

Plans had also been forming in his mind relat-
ing to the Woman's Missionary Society- — the other
movement referred to in chapter XIII. This had
had ten years of eminently successful life, not
only financially but also in the executive ability
shown in its management.

Because of the needs of the larger work, a feel-
ing had grown in some quarters that the women
ought to unite their forces with the parent society,
the argument being that the work in India would

OREN B. CHENEY 215

be made more effective thereby. Dr. Cheney was
reticent about his plans to help this condition, but
he was busy. When the Nominating Committee
made its report at the Foreign Missionary Anni-
versary, at Minneapolis, Rev. Joseph McLeod,
D.D., of the New Brunswick Free Baptists, was
nominated as President of the Society, Mrs. E. S.
Burlingame, President of the Woman's Missionary
Society, as Vice-President, while the nominees for
the Executive Committee included one member
each from the Christian, New Brunswick Free
Baptists and Church of God denominations and
three official members of the Woman's Missionary
Society. They were elected without opposition.

In the absence of the newly elected President,
Dr. McLeod, Dr. Cheney informed the Vice-Presi-
dent of her election and escorted her to the plat-
form to preside. This was probably the first time
a woman had presided at the public meeting of
any denominational Missionary Society.

Results of these movements were (a) the ap-
pointment of a Joint Committee by the Foreign
Missionary and Woman's Societies, which con-
tinued as a permanent factor in simplifying and
harmonizing the work ; (b) the appointment by
General Conference of a Committee to confer with
Committees to be appointed by other denomi-
nations to make plans for permanent union.

The Union Committee held an important meet-
ing at Philadelphia and much progress was

216 LIFE AND WORK OF

reported at the General Conference of 1886, held
at Marion, Ohio, at which there was much enthu-
siasm for union, there being present many dele-
gates from the other bodies concerned.

A vote was there passed that pastors might go
from Christian to Free Baptist churches and vice
versa without loss of denominational standing ;
and a pastor was soon after called from a Chris-
tian church to the Free Baptist church, known as
the College church in Lewiston, Me. A successful
pastorate of ten years followed.

At Marion, a new Committee on Union was
appointed with J. L. Phillips, D.D., as Chairman,
— Dr. Cheney being a member — which later, at a
meeting at Worcester, Mass., agreed upon a basis
of union between Free Baptists and Christians.
Union in Missionary work with the New Bruns-
wick Free Baptists was soon effected and con-
tinued until 1906, when another union movement
led them to become affiliated with the larger
Baptist body in New Brunswick. But in an army
defeat in battle often results from the difficulty of
" bringing up the rear ; " and in denominations
which have no authoritative head, it is a more
perplexing matter to lead forward the " rank and
file." Conservatives in the different denomina-
tions exerted a gradually strengthening influence
against the movement, with the result that finally
the advance guard "rested on their arms."

The regret at this outcome felt by President

OREN B. CHENEY 217

Cheney and many sympathizers is well expressed
in a letter received by him from one who had been
elected a member of the Executive Committee of
the Free Baptist Foreign Missionary Society from
the Church of God :

" I am sorry and grieved at my heart that
a project, so wisely conceived and auspi-
ciously begun, should be strangled so early in
its life. But we can still be brethren and
cherish the hope that those coming after us
will be broader and grander than men of this
generation ; and that they will do what we
ought to have done.

Dear Doctor, I remain

Your brother in Christ."

A year later, Dr. Cheney was elected President
of the Foreign Missionary Society, which position
he held for eight years, until the Society was
merged in the incorporated General Conference
in 1892. Women continued until that time to be
members of the Executive Board, and were always
shown most courteous consideration by President
Cheney and his associates.

BEREAVEMENT

For many months, during the years 1885 and
1886, President Cheney's home had been saddened
by the failing health of his wife and his diaries
show how, amid his many duties, anxiety about
the result was ever present with him.

In February, 1886, Mrs. Nancy Perkins Cheney

218 LIFE AND WORK OF

peacefully passed to the life above, and her
husband was bereft of a faithful companion and
wise counsellor ; one who, for forty years, had
stood by and sympathized with him in his various
activities. We quote diary notes :

"Mrs. C. went to Heaven at 4.20 a. m. She
died without a struggle, falling asleep like a little
child in its mother's arms. Her first Sabbath in
Heaven ! She is singing ' Welcome, delightful
Morn.'"

" Where do all the dear good friends come from ?
There are so many ! Faculty called this morning.
Mrs. C. looks as if asleep."

Many are the testimonials to her useful life !

FACULTY FOR MISCELLANEOUS WORK

COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT

STUDENT TESTIMONIALS

CATHOLICITY AND COSMOPOLITAN
CHARACTER OF BATES

THE STUDENT BODY

XX

In 1886, President Cheney was seventy years
old and may be said to have been at the maturity
of his powers. The few years previous to this,
furnish a fit illustration of his capacity for carry-
ing on different kinds of work at the same time.

The story has been already told how, while
going through the bitter experience attending the
adverse will-decision, he helped, as President of
the Association to found Ocean Park ; how as
Moderator of General Conference he had been led
to devise large things in promoting Christian
union ; how, as Recording Secretary and then
President of the Foreign Missionary Society, he
was shaping its policy and guiding its affairs ;
and how as President of the New England Asso-
ciation, he was working to concentrate and pre-
serve New England Free Baptist interests ; ail
in addition to his strenuous financial work for
Bates College.

We obtain an interesting view of this kaleido-
scopic life through excerpts from his diary, taken
at random from a period covering several months.

" Did not sleep at all last night. Heard the
clock strike every hour. Felt so anxious for the
College."

" Went to Augusta to get charter for Ocean

222 LIFE AND WORK OF

Park Association — also to get legislation relating
to Maine Central Institute."

" College exercises suspended. Funeral of Presi-
dent Garfield. Exercises at College Chapel."

" Go to Springfield. G. will give $300 a year
for 5 years. Praise the Lord. Did not sleep for
joy Monday night and last night. Leave for N.Y."

" At home. Meeting at my home to consider
question of Lewiston and Auburn supporting a
missionary. 25 present. O. B. C. Chairman."

" Received a lettter from editor Boston Post
asking my opinion on Maine Law and Con.
Amendment. At home."

" Meeting of Foreign Missionary Board. Mr.
and Mrs. George examined and accepted as mis-
sionaries to India."

"Attend Eldership of Church of God as dele-
gate from Free Baptist General Conference."

"At home — sick — Sophomores attacked the
Freshmen last night in the Chapel. Although
they were provoked by the Freshmen, still they
cannot be justified in doing what the)' did do."

" Trouble settled by the yielding of the students.
I would rather have let every student leave than
yield the good order of the college."

" Received check of $200 from Mr. C. and one
from P. of $150 for college. Went to Augusta to
get a charter for Woman's Missionary Society,
also to get an amendment of charter of Parent
Foreign Missionary Society."

OREN B. CHENEY 223

" At the State House all day. Go before Judici-
ary Committee. Bills reported."

" Attended convention at F. B. church, St.
John, N. B."

"Yearly meeting — chosen Moderator."

" Boston, see transit of Venus. Meeting of
Foreign Missionary Board."

" Go to Lyndonville, Vt, to advise with
Trustees of the Lyndon Institute."

" Go to Old Orchard. Meeting of Directors of
O. Park Asso."

" Close of General Conference at Minneapolis.
Went to Minnehaha Falls and Fort Snelling.
Called on D. M. Asked him to help college.
Made up the record of the Foreign Missionary
Society."

"Go to Pittsfield to help save Institute. Pitts-
field is to raise $10,000."

"Secured sub. $7,343-79 — sign note for balance.
Thank the Lord the Institute is saved."

"Boston at meeting of Foreign Missionary
Board."

"Election day. The right prevailed."

"Go to Old Orchard— Meeting of O. P. A.
directors."

"Go home. Freshman Declamation."

"Write an article for Star on. Commencement."

" At home — Preside at a public meeting of Pine
Street Free Baptist church, to free the house from
debt."

224 LIFE AND WORK OF

" In doors — Not at all well — I am so tired, but,
if I had a thousand lives, I would give them all for
the dear College. Baby died. (A grandchild.)
The house is dark and empty."

" Writing an article for the Independent about
the General Conference. Heard of the fire at
Farmington late in the afternoon. The College
must suffer a loss. But it can stand fire and the
decision of Mass. Judges, for it is the Lord's
College and he will take care of it." ,

"Called on Mr. . He is about ready to

give money for an observatory. God be praised !"

" See Messrs. L. I think they will endow a
scholarship."

"In New York. Committee of 18 on union
meet at St. Paul's church."

" Committee in session. Adjourn at 4 p.m.
Agree on union in Christian work."

" P. pledges $1,500 on my salary on certain con-
ditions. The Lord bless him. This will make
his gifts to the College about $4,000."

"May 8, '86. Attend the meeting for the
union of the Christians and Free Baptists at our
^church. Am appointed on a committee to report
a plan of union."

"Write an article for the Independent."

"Meeting of Foreign Missionary Board at
Shawmut Ave. church, Boston."

" Went to Chelsea to see Mr. E. He is think-

—
J

OREN B. CHENEY 225

ing of putting something in his will for the
College."

A large correspondence covered a range of more
than all the subjects referred to in these notes.
One letter contains an appeal from a man of
national fame to come to Augusta in an important
political crisis saying :

" Your presence and participation will be of
much value."

Another from a prominent man says :

"Enclosed please find a check for $100 as
a contribution for Bates College. It affords
me great pleasure to be able to contribute in
a small degree to this splendid institution,
which is the work of your creation."

COLLEGE DEVELOPMENT

During the late eighties, for several years, two
important will cases added their perplexities to
the President's duties. Both of these were settled
in favor of the College.

In 1890, the Hedge Laboratory, a substantial
brick building, was added to the College facilities.
The amount given by Dr. Hedge towards its
erection had been pledged with the proviso that
a certain amount be raised within a definite time
in order to redeem the pledge.

Owing to the financial work to be done in order
to meet this and other conditional gifts, Prof G.
C. Chase was obliged to be often in the field to
assist the President.

226 LIFE AND WORK OF

Donors do not realize the agony often endured
by self-sacrificing people, as the time limit draws
near for raising money to meet their conditional
gifts, else they would relieve the strain by less
exacting methods.

Although Bates had an original campus of
twenty acres President Cheney realized the future
importance of adding to these from the surround-
ing land before the neighborhood became thickly
populated, consequently in the late seventies he
had purchased for the College about thirty acres
more. In this movement he had met with sharp
opposition from many who were the firm friends
of the College, but who felt that the campus was
already large enough. President Cheney's perti-
nacity prevailed, however, and as a result of his
foresight the College now has a highly prized
campus of fifty acres, on which has been laid out
one of the finest athletic fields in the country, with
ample room left for future needs in the growth of
the Institution.

President Cheney was a lover of trees. He
enjoyed planting and caring for them. The cam-
pus was at first a rough, uneven piece of land.
The President was never more in his element than
in gradually making this a sightly, attractive spot.
Stumps had to be removed and section after
section graded, this requiring much money and
time. An annual tree-planting was always to him
an occasion of joy. A large majority of the trees

OREN B. CHENEY 227

that now make the campus so attractive and rest-
ful were planted under President Cheney's own
supervision, many of them by his own hands.

Too much credit cannot be given to the corps
of Professors that during those strenuous years
gave such devoted service to the local interests of
the College.

President Cheney's confidence in the efficiency
and faithfulness of these instructors led him to
depend very largely upon them for carrying on
the local work. The financial interests of the
College at this time so dominated his thought as
to somewhat diminish his power as a personal
factor in the school.

But if any special circumstances called for his
attention, he was at once alert and the power of
his personality and his natural forte as teacher
and leader asserted themselves. The following
testimonial from Mrs. Emma J. Clark Rand, class
of 1881, helps us to see President Cheney from
the student standpoint :

" As Dr. Cheney had given up class room
work long before I entered college in order to
devote his whole time to the financial and
general interests of the Institution, I never
had the privilege of knowing him as a
teacher. But his regard for the students was
so keen and personal that I soon came to
feel well acquainted with him and to have in
a measure at least, a sympathetic knowledge
of his life-work and its burdens.

228 LIFE AND WORK OF

" In the eighties the endowment fund of
the College was much smaller than it is today
and the struggle to meet the annual expenses
and plan for growing needs was a serious one.
The student body generally appreciated the
situation and followed the President in his
efforts to win friends and money with intelli-
gent interest that never flagged. Yet through
it all, I think we had rather the feeling that
Dr. Cheney would be equal to things and
there was always a general rejoicing over
every success gained.

" As is natural, however, I recall with great-
est pleasure Dr. Cheney's attitude toward the
higher education of women, for in this he was
far in advance of his times. Indeed, he was
one of the few men of his own generation who
not only believed in, but rejoiced in every-
thing that tended to give women equal oppor-
tunities with men and I was often impressed
with the pleasure he showed in their public
work.

"To Dr. Cheney's broad views and innate
fairness on this subject is largely due the suc-
cess of co-education at Bates and her daugh-
ters owe him more than they can ever realize.
I remember how intensely he felt, later on,
when the College world discussed the advis-
ability of changing the basis of co-educational
Colleges and placing the women in annexes.

" It seemed to him an injustice and he
promptly made public his own position in
regard to the policy of Bates. He urged me,
as one of the earlier alumnae to write an
article for our denominational paper The
Morning Star and left no stones unturned to

OREN B. CHENEY 229

prevent any possible agitation of the subject
in our own College.

" So fully was he in sympathy with the

ideas which prevail in the educational world

today in regard to women that were he with

us now he would in no way have to readjust

his views or do away with prejudices in order

to be again a leader."

Letters sent him by erring, repentant students

show how tenderly as well as firmly he dealt with

them and prove how fully he was trusted as the

student's friend.

It is also true that the Professors and the Presi-
dent were in such harmony of thought in building
up the Institution that Dr. Cheney was all the
while expressing his life and purpose through
their service. Among the people at large, who
knew little of the inner life of the school, Presi-
dent Cheney stood as the embodiment of Bates
College, and it was well that a person of so strong
and pleasing a personality should thus represent
it during the first forty years of its life.

DIVINITY SCHOOL TEACHERS

Prof. John Fullonton, D.D., was now nearing
the close of his most valuable service as Dean of
the Divinity School and the Institution honored
him by raising a fund to found the Fullonton
Professorship. Rev. J. A. Howe, D.D., who had
already given to the school some valuable years
of service, succeeded Professor Fullonton as

230 LIFE AND WORK OF

Dean ; Professor Thomas H. Rich, the eminent
Hebrew scholar, held the position of Professor of
Hebrew ; and later in 1894, Professor B. F. Hayes,
D.D., gave the whole of his scholarly service to
this department.

J. L. H. Cobb Esq., had given to the College
a generous sum of money and in recognition of
this the theological department was named Cobb
Divinity School.

CATHOLICITY AND COSMOPOLITAN CHARACTER OF
BATES

During the whole history of the school there
have been among the students representatives of
different races, including the negro race. Presi-
dent Cheney's sympathy for all mankind was
shown in his deep gratification at their successes,
and their warm appreciation of his kindly interest
expressed itself through letters and personal
thanks. To illustrate we give extracts from a
personal letter received from Professor N. C.
Bruce, class of 1893.

Raleigh, N. C, Feb'y. 11, 1898.
My Dear President, Dr. Cheney:

Tomorrow is the birthday of our great
emancipator and the fact has set me to thinking
over others like your honored self, who also
suffered and bore insults and shame back in those
dark days when it cost so much to speak or sing
or pray for the American Slaves. We of this
generation, will never know how much you and

OREN B. CHENEY 231

others of your venerable age have done towards
opening up the highways along which we now
walk so freely. But some of us will dedicate our-
selves to truth and the work of helping others as
you and other pioneers worked so nobly for me
and mine. How often have I remembered with a
grateful heart the kind words you have spoken to
me and the substantial favor you bestowed in the
hour of my sorest need ! God will bless you.
Perhaps it is enough to say about myself to tell
you that God is using me in ways apparently help-
ful, both in class room, in religious work and
among the masses. Our oldest boy's name is
Bates Shaw Bruce and he is no dull " chap."
God bless you forever and forever.
Yours most faithfully,

N. C. Bruce.

Although the College had been founded with
the purpose of making it a blessing to the Free
Baptist denomination and it had continued to be
such, Catholicity of spirit had so permeated its
life as to make students of all religious beliefs feel
unhampered in their convictions and in honest
development of thought during their courses of
study. Students of several Protestant denomi-
nations, Catholics and Hebrews were members of
the same class in 1902.

When the Young Men's and the Young Women's
Christian Associations began their organized
work in Colleges, Bates gave a ready response
and branch Associations among the young men
and young women have been strong religious
factors in College growth.

232 LIFE AND WORK OF

Throughout the history of the College, debat-
ing had been made prominent. As early as 1865,
Prof. J. Y. Stanton encouraged the students in
debating among themselves and his interest and
encouragement helped debates to become a dis-
tinctive feature of the College.

Among those who received this training during
the earlier College years, are men occupying high
positions as College Presidents, in the ministry,
in the legal profession, and in honorable service
to their country. Thus, long before the Inter-
collegiate Debates began, Bates College students
were having practical training in that line.*

THE STUDENT BODY

The fact that many of the Bates students had
been teachers previous to entering upon their
College course brought to the student body an
especially self-dependent, reliable class of young
people.

It will be remembered that in founding the
Seminary and afterwards the College, President
Cheney had in mind helpfulness to just such
young people, such as wanted to help themselves ;
and the terms were arranged, so as to give a long
vacation, extending from before Thanksgiving
until after New Years. This enabled energetic,

*At this date, June, 1907, Bates has had the honorable
record of having been victor in fifteen out of the seventeen
Intercollegiate Debates in which the College has taken
part.

OREN B. CHENEY 233

ambitious students to teach winter schools with
so little loss of time from the following term that
they could make up their studies and keep on
with their classes, at the same time that they were
helping solve the financial problem of their edu-
cation.

The success of these teachers soon made the
College the source to which School Committees
turned for supplies not only in Maine but in
neighboring states. The experience thus gained
and the opportunities offered for high-class work
led many students to choose teaching as a pro-
fession ; and the fact is accounted for that Bates
graduates occupy so many important positions not
only in schools in Maine but throughout the
country.*

Hazing in its rougher forms had been so firmly
and wisely dealt with by the College faculty as to
be practically eliminated ; but College sports were
encouraged and entered into with such zest that
the Bates teams have ever proved worthy com-
petitors in games with other Colleges.

*'When the National Educational Association was held
in Boston in 1903, Bates College had more graduates among
the teachers attending than any other Institution except
Harvard.

NEW ENGLAND FREE BAPTIST
ASSOCIATION

GENERAL CONFERENCE INCORPORATED

GENERAL CONFERENCE AT HARPER'S
FERRY

PRESIDENT CHENEY MODERATOR
HIS POLITICAL SAGACITY

XXI

Reference was made in chapter thirteen to the
effort to incorporate General Conference in the
sessions of 1865 and 1868. At each succeeding
session, the measure had been brought up for con-
sideration only to be voted down, though by a
steadily lessening majority. When it failed to
pass in the General Conference of 1880, it seemed
to Dr. Cheney that the best good of the denomi-
nation, especially in the eastern part, required the
organization of a New England Association.

There already existed Central and Western
Associations, which were aiming to advance and
concentrate denominational interests in their res-
pective localities, but the New England churches
were without any centralized power.

After some agitation of the matter, Dr. Cheney
called a meeting at Ocean Park, Maine, of those
interested in the movement and the New England
Association of Free Baptist Churches was organ-
ized with Dr. Cheney as President. This position
he occupied during the life of the body.

Although the charter was not obtained until
1 89 1, annual meetings were held and the Asso-
ciation increased in strength and effectiveness and
would have proved of much value, had it not been
that the incorporation of General Conference in

238 LIFE AND WORK OF

1892 caused all the Associations to transfer to it
their divided responsibilities.

GENERAL CONFERENCE INCORPORATED

At the time of the General Conference at
Marion, Ohio, in 1886, sympathy with securing a
more effective denominational organization had
increased to such an extent, that the provisional
Conference Board of seven, of which Dr. Cheney
had continued Chairman, was instructed to take
immediate steps to secure the incorporation of the
body. Dr. Cheney proceeded to secure a charter
from the Maine Legislature and at the next
General Conference at Harper's Ferry, in 1889,
it was adopted, subject to the endorsement of the
Yearly Meetings.

WOMEN ADMITTED TO GENERAL CONFERENCE

This General Conference was notable for an-
other thing. Although, among Free Baptists,
women had previously occupied every other posi-
tion in the gift of the church, they had never
been elected as delegates to General Conference.
Such representation had been under discussion in
other denominations. So eminent a person, in
every way so well qualified, as Frances Willard
had been refused a seat to which she had been
elected in the highest body of her denomination.
All at once the sense of fair play among Free
Baptists seemed to awaken, resulting in the sending

OREN B. CHENEY 239

of a number of women as delegates to the General
Conference of 1889.

Dr. Cheney was once more elected Moderator.
Rev. N. C. Brackett, Ph.D., says of his service:

" Though seventy-three years of age, there
was not the slightest sign of failing power,
but he showed himself still a master of parlia-
mentary law and a model presiding officer."*

His gentlemanly tactfulness was never better
shown than in the at-homeness which the women
delegates felt, as they received from the presiding
officer full recognition, without being given any
undue prominence.

Dr. Cheney was elected Chairman of the new
Conference Board and at the meeting of the

* Dr. Brackett says further : " A conversation I had with
him after the adjournment of the Conference seems to me
worth publishing. We were discussing the political situa-
tion. Harrison was President, but Congress, in which the
Republicans had but a slender majority, had not met. I
expressed doubt whether Congress would be able to pass
any political measures on account of the filibustering of
the powerful minority. Dr. Cheney said : ' I think it will.
Tom Reed will probably be speaker of the House. If he
is, I believe, from what I know of the man, he will establish
new rules for the House. He will count a quorum when a
quorum is present whether they vote or not. It is the
right thing to do ; the majority should rule and I believe
Tom Reed has the courage to do it, though I haven't had
one word of conversation with him about it.' It was a new
idea to me, but when Congress met, I found that Dr.
Cheney was still a prophet of political events.

"There was more truth than compliment in the words of
Mr. Blaine when he said : ' If Dr. Cheney was in politics,
there is no man in Maine whom I should more fear as a
rival for a seat in the United States Senate.' "

240 LIFE AND WORK OF

Board at Ocean Park in 1892, he reported a con-
stitution for its government and guidance which
was adopted, with modification. He then saw
the culmination of a movement which he had
been advocating and for which he had been work-
ing during nearly a quarter of a century.

This incorporated body gives to Free Baptists
an admirable system of church co-operation, bring-
ing as it does, all the church benevolences under
the direction of General Conference, acting
through a Conference Board. As the delegates to
General Conference are elected by the churches
through the Yearly Meetings, it preserves to the
individual members a voice in all denominational
transactions.

EX-PRESIDENT CHENEY

IMPORTANT PLANS UNCOMPLETED

HOME COMPANIONSHIP

TESTIMONIAL BANQUET

XXII

It had long been Dr. Cheney's purpose to resign
as College President, at the end of forty years of
service. As the time approached, there came to
him a deep realization of his inability to do for
the Institution a tithe of what he saw was needed.
But he hoped to accomplish three things : One
was to add to the College resources by the endow-
ment of the President's chair. This seemed likely
to be realized by promised gifts from personal
friends and members of the Cheney family.

Another hope was to secure to the College an
Observatory on Mt. David, a height near the
campus and well adapted for the purpose. He
had secured the provisional gift of the site. The
promise of the money with which to build seemed
so sure that several meetings were held to arrange
definite plans.

But the need which then seemed greatest to the
President was a Hall for the use of the young
women. Bates College had had the remarkable
record of having graduated sixty young women,
without having had a woman in the Faculty, or a
building devoted to their use.

It is a high compliment to those girls that they
had maintained such a high grade of character
and scholarship without anything being done for
their special needs. Perhaps the College may be

244 LIFE AND WORK OF

said to have occupied an attitude toward them
something like this :

" When this College was founded, there was
no thought of your wanting higher education.
We are having all we can do to provide for
the general needs, without making especial
provision for you. At the same time, there
is no reason why you should not have the
same advantages as the boys, if you want to
take your chances."

But, with increasing numbers of young women
applying for admission, the President saw that a
woman Dean and a building for their use were
becoming a necessity.

Some thousands of dollars were secured towards
the former need and something had been pledged
for the latter and it was the President's hope to
see the building erected before his term expired.

But time waits neither for human needs and
hopes nor changing conditions. Owing to unfore-
seen circumstances, serious business reverses, and
especially to the sudden death of the man who
was to give one hundred and fifty thousand dollars
towards the endowment of the President's Chair,
these movements were delayed, and the year 1894
came while they were still in embryo.

For the man who had lived so intensely, who
had seen future possibilities so plainly and who
had so seldom been obliged to relinguish a pur-
pose without seeing its fulfillment, it was not easy

OREN B. CHENEY 245

to lay down his work with these and other great
needs unsupplied, but he was strong in patience
and he met the experience bravely. He carried
out his purpose of twenty years before, and took
for his Baccalaureate text " then the full corn in
the ear."

On September 22nd, just forty years from the
day when the " vision of duty " came to him in
his Augusta home, he yielded to a son of the
College, Prof. George C. Chase, the work of con-
tinuing what he had begun. Prof. Chase had
already carried much of the President's burden in
his absence and had had marked success in rais-
ing money for the Institution.

The inauguration exercises, when President
Cheney laid down the work and President Chase
took it up, reminded one of a summer night in the
far north when the waning light of one day
mingles with the deepening glow of the coming
one.

In closing his retiring address, President Cheney

said :

" This is to me such an experience as few
can fully understand. My life and my all
have been identified with this College. But
in the battle of life the time comes to all men
to put off the armor. For some years, I have
purposed to do so at the end of the forty
years' service which closes today. If there
remains a longing to bring back my young
manhood, I cannot help it. I have walked
this hall at midnight and wept when times

246 LIFE AND WORK OF

were dark. On a retired spot in the adjoin-
ing grove I have prayed when no earthly
help seemed available. There is not a tree
or building or spot on this campus but seems
a part of myself. Reverently I commit all
the precious trusts which I now resign to the
care of our Father in heaven, whose love
never faileth.

"Sir (addressing Governor Dingley), you
have had many honors. I trust you will feel
that one more is added in being called upon
in behalf of the Trustees of the College to
seat Prof. George C. Chase in the chair I now
vacate. These keys, the emblem of my
authority for so many years, I now surrender
to you, for you to place in his hands as the
emblem of his authority.

"The new President has my best wishes
and prayers. For years he has been in my
thought as my successor. I bespeak for him
the united support of the trustees, the faculty,
the students, the alumni, and all the friends
of the Institution. May God bless and pros-
per him and the dear College."

Hon. Nelson Dingley, Jr., then arose and re-
ceived the keys from Dr. Cheney, whom he
addressed in terms of highest appreciation for
his long and successful years of toil for the Col-
lege, of the noble character of the Institution he
had founded, and of the enduring place he holds
in the hearts of her sons and daughters. He said :

" Dr. Cheney : In receiving in behalf of
the corporation the keys which you have

OREN B. CHENEY 247

surrendered as a token of your retirement from
the position of the Presidency of Bates Col-
lege, I should do injustice to my own feelings
as well as to the feelings of my associates, if
I did not express to you not only our regret
at the sundering of the ties which have so
long united you with this Institution, but
also our deep appreciation of the inestimable
value of your services to Bates College and
the cause of the higher education.

" The forty years during which you have
been laboring to promote the interests of this
Institution of learning — the first nine during
its chrysalis seminary condition, and the last
thirty-one in its more mature collegiate state
— cover not only the working years of a long
and exceptionally busy life, but also the most
eventful period in the history of the republic,
and mark most wonderful strides in the prog-
ress of the higher education in this country.

" It is only a coincidence that this period
happens to be the same length of time in
which the Israelites were prepared in the
wilderness for grand and heroic service under
the leadership of the great Hebrew lawgiver
and statesman. Yet to my mind God's hand
no more surely set apart Moses for leadership
in the great work of educating the Israelites
up to the standard which he designed for the
Hebrew nation, than his hand set apart Oren
B. Cheney in 1854 to do a great work for
education in that denomination with which
he was connected, and in whose life he has
borne so distinguished a share.

" This is not the time nor the place to
tell from the standpoint of the historian and

248 LIFE AND WORK OF

biographer the story of your great work for the
Maine State Seminary and Bates College, Dr.
Cheney. Suffice it to say that when this
story shall be told as fully as it deserves (for
you have only modestly touched its edges),
it will present a record of patient toil, un-
wearied devotion, persistent endeavor, remark-
able utilization of every opportunity, and
wonderful success under the most discourag-
ing conditions, such as has rarely been
recorded even in this land of small beginnings
and wonderful growths.

" It is not too much to say that every brick
of this building in which we are assembled
today, every brick of yonder buildings, was
laid with means secured through your efforts.
These grounds, selected under' your eye, tell
the story of your unwearied labors. With
the eye of a faith in the future of this College
which saw the bright lining beneath the dark
cloud, you have seen the morning light break-
ing while others have discerned only dark-
ness. We, your associates in the corporation,
wish that your years and strength were equal
to the work which remains to be done. But,
as it is, we have reluctantly accepted your
resignation of the office of President of the
College, whose duties you have so long and
successfully discharged, with the knowledge
that in your retirement, in which you will
have our best wishes for your continued
health and prosperity, you will still have in
your heart the welfare of this Institution."

During Congressman Dingley's address to
President Chase, he said ;*******■*

OREN B. CHENEY 249

" Who is able to estimate the beneficent
influence of the nearly 700 graduates who
have gone forth from Bates College alone in
the thirty-one years in which President
Cheney has been at its head — gone forth as
educators either in the school, the pulpit, or
the press ; or participants in the activities of
our modern life as engineers, electricians,
chemists, or business men ; or as leaders in
public life ! And, above everything else, all
imbued with a Christian idea of life and
government.

" Bates College was the first of our higher
institutions of learning to open her doors on
equal terms to women — a distinction which
entitles her to a proud position in the col-
leges of our land. Whatever doubt the edu-
cational world may have had — as it did have
thirty years ago — of the wisdom of this step
has been dissipated by this result. Imitating
the noble Roman matron, Bates points to the
seventy-seven women who have so succesfully
pursued the regular curriculum of study, in
part under your instruction, Mr. Chase, and
made their mark in the world."

HOME COMPANIONSHIP

It was probably well for Dr. Cheney now that
he had a companion, to sympathize with and help
him. Two years before, on July 5, 1892, he had
been united in marriage with Emeline S. (Aid-
rich) Burlingame.

For many years their interests had been identi-
cal in Christian and reformatory work. Both had

250 LIFE AND WORK OF

lived very strenuous lives in devotion to such
work. Both were " weary in the march of life "
and the clasping of hands steadied and strength-
ened both.

BANQUET AND RECEPTION

Expression was given of the appreciation of
what President Cheney had done for the twin
cities of Lewiston and Auburn in founding Bates
College by a banquet and reception, tendered him
by prominent citizens of those cities.

The large banquet hall was filled with represent-
ative people. Senator Wm. P. Frye presided.
He read letters of regret and appreciation from
Congressman Dingley, who was attending the
fortieth reunion of his own class at Dartmouth,
and from President Hyde, who was detained by
the duties of Bowdoin Commencement.

Speaking in his usual felicitous style, Senator
Frye then referred beautifully to President
Cheney's consecrated life, saying he did not know
what the world would have done had it not been
for the men and women who have conceived great
purposes for humanity and then have given their
lives to their execution.

In illustration, he told the touching story of
Father Duncan, who was the sage, the prophet
and the saviour of a community on one of the
Alaskan Islands. He then referred tenderly to
Father Damien, the priest who gave his life to

OREN B. CHENEY 251

ameliorate the condition of the Hawaiian lepers,
and who died at last, himself a leper, as he knew
he must. His example inspired many volunteers
to follow him and each gave his life willingly to
the cause.

" Our guest tonight was a young man of
fine family and good education. He could
have made a success in business and become
rich, for he had the ability ; he could have
obtained political honors, for they were with-
in his grasp ; he could have been a social
leader, for he had the elements of success in
that line, but instead he devoted himself to
the interests of his church — one of the small-
est of the denominations and which by reason
of its radical position in reform movements
and its conservative attitude towards edu-
cation held a unique position of its own.

" He settled in a small pastorate in Maine,
but his talents and peculiar gifts for his work
were early recognized and he was called to a
church in Maine's capital city. He was soon
at home here, loved and respected, doing
what he liked best to do, preaching the gospel
of love. In this congenial work he might
have continued as long as he pleased.

" But with fine foresight he saw the great
future need of an institution for higher edu-
cation, such as was not then existing among
Free Baptists in New England; and our
guest of the evening decided to leave his
pastorate and the delightful associations that
he loved better than anything else in the
temporal world, and seek to embody his ideals

252 LIFE AND WORK OF

in an institution of learning which should not
only be a greatly needed blessing to Free
Baptists, but should invite all youth to its
benefits, male and female, black and white.

" He left his parish and to this noble work
he has devoted his entire life. He was no
bigot, no sectarian, only a lover of man and
a believer in education. Thank God, that he
has been permitted to live to see such success
crown his efforts !

" Our guest brought to this work unusual
ability, high ideals, foresight, great perse-
verance, shrewdness, patience. He was a
handsome man. He is seventy-nine years
old and is the best looking man in the room
tonight. I'll leave it to Mrs. Cheney if he
isn't."

Senator Frye then spoke of President Cheney's
success in raising money and very cleverly told
a story about introducing him to Senator Leland
Stanford ; and how, when invited to Governor
Stanford's home in Washington, President Cheney
did not beg for money but just made himself
agreeable, and how, by his personality he so
charmed the Senator and his wife that unsolicited
Govenor Stanford gave President Cheney a check
for $1,000, saying that he knew that all colleges
needed money.

Senator Frye then told how, later, Governor
Stanford came to him and said :

" That Dr. Cheney ! He was a most charm-
ing man! I have sold a colt for $7,500. I

OREN B. CHENEY 253

want five hundred dollars for pocket money.
Give the seven thousand to Dr. Cheney."

The Senator closed this introductory address
with an eloquent testimonial to President Cheney's
consecrated life and work.

Many other appreciative addresses were made
and the whole affair was very successful.

THE SUNSET SLOPE

A SURPRISE PARTY

CALIFORNIA TRIP

AT HOME IN LEWISTON

XXIII

For those who are only interested in the large
affairs of life, this story is closed. But for the
friends of Dr. Cheney and for all who wish to
follow the life-study through the tender incidents
associated with old age, there is more to follow.

Several years before this, in a time of great
financial stress President Cheney had deeded to
the College his house and land.*

This was with a proviso that he have the use
of it during his lifetime, but it now seemed best
to him and his wife to relinquish its use to the
College and they waived their claim to it.

While Dr. Cheney retained his citizenship in
Lewiston and seldom lost his vote there, during
the next few years, he spent much time at his
wife's homestead in Pawtuxet, R. I., in quiet
study and home companionship. During this time
he took the Chautauqua course of readings and
was one of the graduates in the class of 1900.

This life frequently alternated with travel and
attendance at large meetings. While at Washing-
ton, D. C, in 1895, he heard of the sudden death
of Frederick Douglass. He easily obtained tickets
for the church and the attendance at the funeral

* Following an eloquent appeal to the Trustees made later
by Hon. James G. Blaine, they gave back to the President
a house lot from this land.

258 LIFE AND WORK OF

was a never-to-be-forgotten privilege. The elo-
quent addresses by President J. E. Rankin, mem-
bers of Congress and others, the fine appearance
of the representatives of the colored race who
packed the church, the sea of dusky faces in street,
windows and on house tops — all these spoke elo-
quently for the departed and there was no one
who rendered a more heartfelt tribute than Dr.
Cheney, for he had all his life recognized the
truth that God " hath made of one blood all
nations of men."

A SURPRISE PARTY

In 1899 on Dr. Cheney's eighty-third birthday,
Mrs. Cheney planned for him a surprise party at
their Pawtuxet home. Entirely unsuspicious as
to what was to happen, he went down to meet the
first arrivals in dressing-gown and slippers, say-
ing : " It is only some of the boys " — his favorite
term for the Bates graduates. When he saw
another group coming up the walk, the situation
dawned upon him and giving his wife an arch
look, he retreated and soon reappeared in his
usual careful attire.

About fifty persons were present including most'
of the Bates graduates in Rhode Island and other
College and family friends. The exercises were
very appropriately presided over by Arthur Given,
D.D., one of the first Bates graduates.

Because the letters sent for that occasion

OREN B. CHENEY 259

contain the best obtainable estimate of the man
whose life-study we are telling, we append full
extracts.

The first represents his Alma Mater. After
referring appreciatively to one of Dr. Cheney's
brothers as his teacher and to another as his
intimate personal friend, Rev. W. J. Tucker, D.D.,
President of Dartmouth College, says :

" I cannot allow such an occasion to pass
by without extending to you personally and
from the Trustees and graduates of Dart-
mouth College, our heartiest greetings. We
look with honor and pride upon the work
which you have accomplished in behalf of
education and religion. Few men among our
graduates have laid such wide foundations,
or built so securely as yourself. I doubt if
you can see your work in the same proportion
that those can who have a different per-
spective. May I assure you that the College
of your early training joins with the College
of your later service in most sincere con-
gratulations."

The Free Baptist denomination was represented
by Rev. G. H. Ball, D.D., who says:

" I am thanking God that you were ever
born and have made so much of life. Few
men in centuries have done so well. Your
courage, tact, persistency and success in
planting Bates College are simply sublime.
Had you been surrounded by men who saw
the need, forecast the benefits and possessed

260 LIFE AND WORK OF

the means and courage to give the effort
strong support, you would have deserved
great credit, but to have engineered the work
and forced success in spite of the very oppo-
site of these conditions was more than heroic.
* # * Your strong efforts for Storer College
still thrill me. The ' railroad to the moon '
has proved a through route to glory to
thousands of benighted souls."

President G. C. Chase, LL.D., wrote both as
President of Bates College and as an alumnus :

" It hardly seems possible that it has been
thirty-nine years since, as a boy of sixteen, I
first saw you, then in the prime of manhood,
and subsequently recited to you in the Latin
reader and grammar. Among all my recol-
lections of teachers, none are more pleasant
than those of you. I recall the light in your
kindly eyes when a correct answer was given
to a difficult question. You were an enthu-
siastic teacher and much of my subsequent
liking for language study was the taste for it
that I developed under your instruction.

" I remember too, the kind letter that you
wrote to my parents urging that I had given
evidence of scholarly ambition and ability.
Our College was then unborn unless it were
already in your brain, but the Seminary was
reaching the culmination of its fame and use-
fulness. You had the wisdom and the courage
not to be the enemy of the better. You relin-
quished a shining success to enter upon a
work so laborious, perplexing, and unremit-
ting that never for one moment afterwards
could you enjoy freedom from care.

OREN B. CHENEY 261

" I have been impressed of late even more
than ever before by the dauntless courage
that conceived and carried to success an
enterprise in which good men, your associates
and counsellors, saw only folly, illusion and
failure. Our generation will never know how
almost alone Dr. Cheney kept on with his
great life work, undisturbed by opposition
and rebuke. Many generations will have
passed away before the vast and far reaching
results of that work will be fully appreciated.
But all over our land there are even now
rising up hundreds and thousands to bless
the name and cherish the memory of the
founder of Bates College."

Dec. 10, 1899.

The College Faculty were represented by Prof.
J. Y. Stanton :

" I learn that it is your eighty-third birth-
day. On account of your temperate and
wisely regulated life you are so well preserved
and look so much as you did when you were
a young man that one can scarcely think of
old age in connection with you. I know of no
man in regard to whom the remark of Cicero
can be better applied, ' The weight of a re-
spected and honored old age is easily borne.'

" I know of no man that has been more
successful and fortunate in life than yourself.
You began and have lived to accomplish a
noble work which perhaps never would have
been undertaken by any other person. You
were the founder of an Institution whose
benign influence will be almost infinite in

262 LIFE AND WORK OF

extent. This influence will be exerted to
your honor as long as time lasts."

Mrs. Kate Prescott Cox, class of '91, represented
the alumnae :

" I wish it were possible for all your friends
to meet you and take your hand on this
occasion. What an assembly there would
be ! I am sure no house could hold all who
would gladly come. But many of the absent
ones will think of you with loving and grate-
ful remembrances.

" There are few men who can look back on
such a life's work as you have accomplished.
You have placed within the reach of a great
many young people, both young men and
young women, an opportunity of securing a
liberal education, which they never could
have had but for your efforts and self-sacri-
fices.

" This in itself would be enough to call
forth our grateful homage today, but when
we reflect that it was from your hand that
the first woman graduate from a New England
College received her diploma, we feel that
what you have done for woman's education
should receive particular mention.

"As one of the Alumnae of Bates College
let me say that we appreciate this honor
bestowed upon our Alma Mater by her
founder and former president."

The Treasurer of Bates College, Addison Small,
sent this greeting :

" I wish I could find words adequate to
express my feelings and good wishes for you

OREN B. CHENEY 263

on this occasion. In the first place, I would
like, if possible, to give expression to my
sincere gratitude for what you have done
for me. You founded the Maine State Semi-
nary. The establishment of that Institution
incited in me a desire to acquire an educa-
tion and rendered it possible for me to do so.
" You have had many trials during your
life and you have borne heavy burdens for
others. I gained some knowledge of what
these burdens were when, for a few years, we
endured together the trials of raising the
money for the College and suffered the vexa-
tions of the Belcher and Hedge will trials.
I experienced just enough of them to realize
in some small degree, what you must have
borne in the early days of the College."

Maine State Seminary students were rep-
resented by Mrs. Addison Small :

" The many expressions of your abiding
interest in, and friendship for me and mine,
have made your life, my dear friend, mean
much to us. I thank you.

" Your larger interest in all mankind — your
unselfish efforts to benefit others, the patience
and perseverance you have practised through
your long life, make me say ' Thou art a
King among men.' "

Rev. E. B. Stiles and wife speak for the Foreign
Missionaries :

" We wish to express our love for one who
has been so intimately related to our lives,
as President of our College when we were

264 LIFE AND WORK OF

students, as President of the Foreign Mission-
ary Society when we were appointed to India,
as a kind friend and sympathetic adviser at
all times."

Dr. A. T. Salley, pastor of the Main Street
Church, Lewiston, sends this greeting :

" When the educational idea dawned upon
my boyish mind, you, Dr. Cheney, were the
one man in New England to whom, because
of your commanding position in educational
circles, my mind turned for advice about a
collegiate course. This advice was cheerfully
given and most fortunately followed. The
result was seven very happy and profitable
years in Bates College and Theological School.
And this collegiate work has had much to do
in determining my life's career and in giving
me whatever small measure of success has
fallen to my lot.

" During these seven years you were an
inspiration to me and your words of advice
and encouragement helped urge me on to the
consummation of my hopes. For all this I
thank you.

" For all you have been in the church of
Christ, as an earnest -preacher, pastor and
leader during so many years ; for your emi-
nent service in the educational world, to
which Bates College is a splendid, enduring
monument ; and for all the helpful influences
which have gone out from your life to bless
our world, the Main Street Free Baptist
church of Lewiston joins with me in express-
ing their profound appreciation."

OREN B. CHENEY 265

The following brief extract from the testimonial
from Mrs. M. M. H. Hills embodies the thought
in many other letters :

" Words can give you but a very faint idea
of the high esteem and veneration your noble
life and unselfish labors have begotten in my
heart, so I will attempt no such effort. No
sincerer friend will greet you today. ' The
Lord bless thee and keep thee.' "

Mrs. V. G. Ramsey, a life-long friend, wrote
thus, tenderly :

Brother beloved, what honors shall we bring

Before thy feet to lay ?
What gifts bestow, what lofty peansing

That's worthy of the day ?

Thy natal day ! — We thank our God who made

This day with blessings rife,
And through the fourscore years, in sun and shade,

Has glorified thy life.

We come with reverent love, to offer thee —
Not costly gems, nor gold, —

They are too poor — our inmost hearts must be
Thine own to have and hold !

We know thy toils and cares — a leader thou
On many a hard fought field !

A victor's wreath may justly crown his brow,
Who never learned to yield.

A generous friend, a wise and faithful guide

To young, unwary feet !
Thousands today, with grateful joy and pride,

Thy honored name repeat.

And now, when past the noontide toil and heat,

And shadows gather round,
The holy hush of twilight is most sweet,

The evening peace profound.

266 LIFE AND WORK OF

And nearer draw the city's shining wall

And crystal gates ajar ;
From blissful bowers long silent voices call,

And beckon thee afar.

Tho' bright the immortal shore, yet still we pray

That God will bid thee wait,
And, making evening fairer than the day,

Accord thee entrance late.

The pleasant social intercourse about the festive
board was a fitting close to a delightful affair
which shed its brightness over many wintry days.

CALIFORNIA TRIP

Two years later circumstances favored Dr.
Cheney's taking a long desired trip to the Pacific
Coast. On the way, a few weeks were spent at
Nogales, a border town in Arizona. The party
arrived there late Saturday night. Early Sunday
morning Dr. Cheney was astir, apparently un-
f atigued, and said, " I will go to some little church
service today where I shall be unobserved."
What was his surprise, on entering a little adobe
church, to have the pastor approach him with
outstretched hands, saying :

" Isn't this President Cheney ? I am Mr. Reud a
Bates man."

This happy experience was one of many that
attended the whole trip.

One evening the family amused themselves by
making phonographic records. When Dr.
Cheney's turn came, he began his with : " A
million dollars for Bates College."

OREN B. CHENEY 267

This border mining town of Nogales had great
interest for him, in collecting facts at the Custom
House, and in going over the Mexican border and
observing the old-time customs and dress, made
familiar by his childhood pictures. On his
eighty-fifth birthday he climbed a nearby moun-
tain and standing by a boundary stone obtained
an extended view in both countries.

He continued his trip to the coast with high
anticipations of obtaining funds for the College.
As he crossed the beautiful bay from San Fran-
cisco to Oakland, he stood like a victor with form
erect and head thrown back, realizing a life-long
wish in looking out upon an arm of the Pacific.

The trip had been an ovation. At different
points on the way " Bates boys " had met and
entertained him and now at Professor Meade's
hospitable home, he received calls from teachers,
ministers and missionaries who expressed grate-
ful appreciation for what Bates had done for them.
Beyond his greatest expectation he had found
fruitage from his seed sowing.

Possibly the excitement was too much. One
morning, the tired body warned him that his
service was nearly over. His plans for further
travel and raising money were abandoned. As
soon as able he returned as far as Phenix, Ari-
zona, where he was under the tender care of a
Christian physician, who had known of his life
and work and who showed the deepest interest

268 LIFE AND WORK OF

in him. While here his faculty for being con-
nected with first things had another illustration.
He was much excited when informed that the
flag which led the troops to victory up San Juan
hill in the Spanish-American war was made in the
room he was occupying in the Mills House ; and
that, in honor of this, President and Mrs. McKin-
ley, when on their trip across the country, in pass-
ing in a procession through Phenix, rose in their
carriage and saluted the house.

AT HOME IN LEWISTON

A few weeks later he was located in Lewiston,
where quietly and restfully he spent his remaining
months, under the shadow of the College that he
loved. As he reviewed his life during these de-
clining months he saw so plainly the possibilities
and needs for future development of a strong
Institution that he often said, " I have laid only a
few foundation stones." But his vision was clear
as to these needs. At the last Commencement
which he attended, in 1903, his brother, Hon. E.
H. Cheney well said in a post-prandial address :
" There will never be a building or department
added to Bates College that this man has not had
a vision of."

Resting one day on the Chapel steps he pointed
out to one of the Professors, different locations
where building after building ought to be located.

His consciousness of his own limitations was

OREN B. CHENEY 269

revealed in many ways during these months. As
one illustration : He had always regretted that
he was not a more magnetic public speaker and it
throws a side-light on his character that he
seemed to derive solid satisfaction from his wife's
efforts in that line, appearing to feel that she was
in a measure supplying a lack in himself. When
Mrs. Cheney returned from any public service,
with almost childlike eagerness and beaming face,
he asked to hear all about it, what had been said,
the impression it made and what had been said
about it, and would often clap his hands with
pleasure.

Foibles ? Yes, he had them for he was human.
His friends knew and condoned them. But con-
sidering that, during twelve years of closest rela-
tions, the writer never once heard him refer to a
fault in any member of his family, brothers,
sisters, children or grandchildren, and seldom in
anyone, we accord him the same gracious silence.

REFLECTED SUNSHINE

BATES ROUND TABLE CELEBRATES

DR. CHENEY'S EIGHTY-SEVENTH

BIRTHDAY

AT REST

XXIV

During his many years of travel, President
Cheney had been a guest in a great many homes.
During the last months, when the stress of life
was over, he loved to refer to the friendships thus
formed and the kindness shown, and often re-
peated stories with which he had been wont to
brighten the homes entertaining him.

If an accident happened in the home and there
was danger that some one would be reproved, he
would divert attention by asking, " Did you ever
hear about the man who started to go for water
to a spring in the cellar ? Well, he stumbled
and fell down the stairs. His wife rushed to
the door and asked eagerly, ' John ! John ! did
you break the pitcher?' 'No, but I will,' John
answered, dashing it against the stone wall."
When the story was ended the recent mishap was
forgotten.

Or, if he heard anyone lamenting about some-
thing forgotten or neglected he would remind him
of the woman, whose first exclamation after break-
ing her leg was, " Oh, what a massy it is that I
made soap yesterday !"

Reclining on his couch, in a sunny bay window,
through papers, magazines and books he kept in
close touch with the life of the world.

Prof. Bachelder, of Hillsdale College, once said:

274 LIFE AND WORK OF

" President Cheney is one of the most discriminat-
ing newspaper readers that I ever knew. His
knowledge of conditions throughout the world is
broad and accurate."

During the long winter evenings, sitting by the
cheerful blaze and genial warmth of a wood fire,
he related to his wife many incidents, which to-
gether they embodied in a series of Reminiscences
which were published in The Morning Star and
many of which appear in this volume.

Dr. Cheney's eighty-sixth birthday was pleas-
antly remembered by a reception arranged by
his daughters, Mrs. C. H. Swan and Mrs. J. F.
Boothby, and held at the pleasant home of the
latter. Many friends from the twin cities called
with congratulations.

During the summer of 1903, the last of the
many he so pleasantly spent at Ocean Park, Dr.
Cheney attended his last Sabbath service in the
Temple, where he listened to Rev. Anna Howard
Shaw. This was significant in view of what he
himself had done for the advancement of women
and it was notable that her text was : " He was
not disobedient to the heavenly vision." His
beaming face as he listened to the eloquent ser-
mon was an interesting study.

CLOSING HOURS

On his eighty-seventh birthday, the Bates
Round Table met at his home. Though it was

OREN B. CHENEY 27 '5

in December, College and other friends sent a
profusion of beautiful flowers. As a surprise to
him, the literary exercises consisted of an appreci-
ative and kindly review of his life-work, by his
associates in the College Faculty. Half reclining
on his couch, he watched the speakers with a
wondering, almost timid expression. The delight-
ful evening closed with an impromptu gathering
about his couch of Maine State Seminary students,
who sang some of the old hymns of pleasant
memory. The next morning, Dr. Cheney said to
his wife, " I did not deserve all those things they
said about me."

"Isn't it pleasant that they think you do ?" was
her reply, which called out a hearty laugh.

Two days later, the earthly tenement began to
loosen its hold and a few days after, the spirit was
free. Times of consciousness showed a continued
lively interest in friends, in Christian work and in
national life. " What shall we do without Burk-
holder ? " * was eagerly asked of a minister who
spent a few moments by his bedside.

He had been deeply interested in the Cuban
Reciprocity Treaty, then before Congress. Find-
ing that it had passed the Senate by an aye-and-
nay vote, his wife informed him of the fact.
" Will you read the result as they voted ? " he

* News had come the day previous of the death, in
India, of Rev. T. W. Burkholder, a successful Free Baptist
Missionary.

276 LIFE AND WORK OF

asked. As the names were announced one after
another, he stated accurately the political party
to which each belonged.

When the cloud had apparently settled finally
over his consciousness and members of the family
were resting, they were hastily called to his bed-
side, by hearing him exclaim, " What is that ? "
" Only a little brandy and water," replied the
nurse. " I will not take it," he said with startling
intensity. He did not. It almost seemed as if
he came back from the other world to give a final
protest against that which all his life he had
opposed as a beverage and had never tasted.

An hour later an ineffable smile, then rest
eternal! The simple funeral service was the
tribute of friends and associates in College and
church. The beautiful floral offerings were ar-
ranged by the loving hands of former students,
and the most touching tribute of all was a beauti-
ful piece, sent by a colored woman, formerly
employed in his home. When remonstrated with
for wishing to pay so large a sum of money for
the offering, she said earnestly:

"I want to. He did so much for my race."

In a beautiful cemetery, overlooking the broad
Androscoggin, the form rests ; but O. B. Cheney
lives in hundreds of useful lives, in well-organized
Christian work and in the nation to which he ever
tried to be a blessing.

Each summer, at Ocean Park, a benign face

OREN B. CHENEY 277

looks over the audiences gathered in the Temple ;
at Storer College, the same kindly face greets the
freedmen students gathering there from year to
year — these pictures being gifts expressing the
love of daughters. In the beautiful new Coram
Library building at Bates, there hangs a large
portrait of the revered first President, placed there
by the alumni ; and all these seem to say to the
beholders : " Influence is immortal. Live not
alone for the good, but for the best, even though
you stand alone."

After-word

The life-story presented in this book has been
mainly from the view-point of the author. It is
now proposed to add estimates of work and
character, gleaned from many sources and written
from the individual points of view occupied by the
writers.

There will necessarily be some repetition of
facts and opinions already given, and estimates
will be made differing but little from each other,
but varying in expression according to the in-
dividuality of the person giving them.

A large volume might be filled with such testi-
monials, but these will suffice.

E. B. C.

From an address given by Prof. A. W. Anthony,
D.D., at the Bates Round Table, held at Dr.
Cheney's home on the evening of his eighty-
seventh birthday :

" To be the file-leader in the march is not
always more honorable than to follow steadily
and firmly in the line, although the first man
not unusually receives the greater attention
and commendation. In initiating enterprises,
however, there is a certain excellence in
vision and in courage, which the follower, be
he ever so sagacious and efficient as a fol-
lower, does not ordinarily possess. ' First
things,' also, have a certain isolation from
environment, at least on one side, and are

282 LIFE AND WORK OF

consequently thrown into a greater promi-
nence. About them is a charm, if not a halo,
which the many in succession do not share.
To have had a hand in initiating many enter-
prises, even if not a formative influence in
every case, gives a distinction to a man.

" It has been the fortune of the man whose
birthday we celebrate tonight to initiate an
unusual number of movements, some of a for-
tuitous character, others indicative of his own
foresight, energy and determination.

" If the list of ' first things,' with which
O. B. Cheney was connected, was expanded
into a full account of the collateral and
associated ideas, a considerable history would
be written of many important events and
movements in the Free Baptist denomination,
in the life and enterprise of New England, in
the development of educational and ecclesias-
tical institutions, and in the larger undertak-
ings which reach far and wide in many parts
of the world for the uplift and blessing of
humanity.

" In 1824, when a mere lad, Oren B. Cheney
attended the first Sunday School held in the
northern part of New Hampshire. When
still a boy, he laid sheet by sheet the pulp
from which the paper was made on which the
first issue of 7he Morning Star, the denomi-
national organ of the Free Baptists, begun in
1826, was printed. This was the paper on
which he afterward did no little editorial
work.

" The first school founded and maintained
by Free Baptists had Oren B. Cheney enrolled
upon the opening day as a pupil. This was

OREN B. CHENEY 283

at Parsonsfield, Maine, where subsequently
that same pupil became principal of the
seminary.

" While at Parsonsfield as a student, he,
with others, organized a temperance society,
which is believed to be the first school society
in the world, the pledge of which prohibited
fermented, as well as distilled, liquors.

" Mr. Cheney was present at the organiza-
tion of the Free Baptist Foreign Missionary
Society ; he was a member of the convention
which organized the Free Baptist Education
Society; he helped organize the Free Soil
Party ; he founded Lebanon Academy ; he
voted for the first prohibitory law as intro-
duced in the Maine Legislature by Neal
Dow ; he founded the Maine State Seminary,
which afterwards became Bates College, and
in inaugurating and caring for this chief
institution of his solicitude, he also inci-
dentally, had a formative hand in founding
Maine Central Institute at Pittsfield, Maine,
and Storer College at Harper's Ferry, West
Virginia. He gave the first diploma that was
ever received by a woman graduate from a
New England College.

" In Maine he helped consolidate the three
Yearly Meetings of Free Baptists into the one
strong Maine Free Baptist Association, which
is now so effective in the state ; he also aided
in the founding and developing of Ocean
Park Association and Assembly, and was the
first president of the Ocean Park Association,
the organization which maintains in the town
of Old Orchard a summer settlement, with lect-
ures, conventions and classes of a Chautauqua

284 LIFE AND WORK OF

character. In the denomination at large
he, with Rev. G. H. Ball, D.D., of New York,
initiated the plans which finally resulted in
the formation of a legally incorporated
General Conference of Free Baptists, into
which as a central body have been merged
the functions of the Free Baptist Foreign
Missionary Society, the Free Baptist Home
Mission Society, the Free Baptist Education
Society, the Free Baptist Sunday School
Union and the Free Baptist Temperance
Society. Through his instrumentality women
were admitted to membership on the Foreign
Mission Board and later as delegates to the
General Conference of Free Baptists. He
led his brethren in championing this cause.
" In his later years it has seemed to be
almost a genius with Dr. Cheney, in a quiet,
unobtrusive way, to adjust, simplify and
solidify organization. His foresight and
vision, his shrewd common sense and practi-
cal wisdom, his devotion of time and effort
have been wrought into many permanent
forms which his followers will continue to
employ, even when the file-leader is out of
sight."

From an article in The Morning Star of No-
vember i, 1894, referring to Dr. Cheney's resig-
nation as President of Bates College, signed
" Pilgrim : "

" In the excellent address of President
Cheney, at the inauguration of the new
President of Bates College, occur these words,

OREN B. CHENEY 285

' If there is a longing to bring back my young
manhood, I cannot help it.'

" Probably there are very few who, were
the choice theirs, would desire to live their
lives a second time, for every life, however
happy and prosperous, has many sad experi-
ences that no one would wish repeated. But
at this time, when the very pulse of this old
world beats responsively to the march of
progress, when even earth and sky are expos-
ing their long buried treasures, and new
truths are constantly developing, one can
hardly fail to desire that the wheel of time
might be turned backward, that in the
strength and freshness of youth he might
enter the arena and participate once more in
its stirring scenes.

" It were strange indeed, if in a life devoted
for forty long years to one object, as has been
that of the subject of this sketch — an object,
moreover, in the accomplishment of which he
has been so eminently successful — as he steps
aside to yield to another the charge so dear
to his heart, there should be no regrets for
the vanished years, no longing for the vigor
and strength of young manhood.

" No one not cognizant of the struggles
incident to the founding of Maine State
Seminary, and particularly of the discourage-
ment and trials consequent on the proposi-
tion to change the seminary to a college, can
appreciate the quiet persistency (a persist-
ency characteristic of some of the world's
noblest heroes) of the man, who standing
almost alone, amid opposition on every side,
never faltered in his purpose. Loving the

286 LIFE AND WORK OF

denomination of his choice with a love of
which, it is feared, most of us know little, and
firmly believing a Free Baptist college a vital
necessity to the highest welfare of that de-
nomination, he stood firm as a rock, though
friends, loved and honored, saw only disaster
and disappointment in his plans. Had he
been one whit less persistent Bates College
had had no existence. When one thinks of
the seven hundred young men and women
who have left its halls, many of them inspired
with a noble ambition to make of life a suc-
cess in the highest and best sense, he can
realize something of the calamity it would
have been had a weaker man been at the
helm, who had yielded his judgment to that
of his colleagues.

" From its commencement Bates College,
notwithstanding its poverty, has been won-
derfully successful. Doubtless this is in part
owing to the noble band of instructors who
from the first have blessed the institution ;
but far more to the fertile brain of him who
constantly, through anxious days and often
sleepless nights, was devising plans for its
advancement.

" A noble life work indeed has been that
of the founder of Bates College. The beautiful
and touching tribute paid to the retiring
President by Congressman Dingley (a man of
whom every dweller of the Pine Tree State
may be justly proud) is as truthful as it is
beautiful. Long may his words be remem-
bered., Only the arithmetic of heaven can
compute the value of a life which has set in
motion a train of beneficent influences so

OREN B. CHENEY 287

far-reaching in their results that eternity
alone can measure their importance.

" And now, as our beloved president waits
by the ' ingleside ' for the summons to other
duties and responsibilities, we know it will
be no idle waiting. Such as he never doff
their armor till the mortal is changed to
immortality. Bates College is still his, the
child of his heart, around which every fiber
of his being twines. Whatever he can do to
advance its interests will be gladly, cheer-
fully done.

" And as the years go on, and the picture
so beautifully painted by Bates's new Presi-
dent becomes a reality (as it surely will),
looking down from the battlements of heaven
at the monument fashioned by his own hands,
and beholding it ever increasing in beautiful
proportions as tier after tier of polished
stones is added, the words that so often fell
from the lips of its sainted founder on his
earthly journey, as some bright oasis greeted
his weary sight, will rise in sweeter, loftier
measures, till heaven's arches shall ring with
the glad acclaim :

" Praise God from whom all blessings flow,
Praise him, all creatures here below ;
Praise him above, ye heavenly host,
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost."

As one of a series of articles published in The
Morning Star on Free Baptist Pioneers in the issue
of July 14, 1898, Rev. Thomas H. Stacy, D.D.,
devotes the fourteenth to O. B. Cheney. After
reviewing the facts of his life, he says :

288 LIFE AND WORK OF

"The spirit which made him a pioneer
among our people in getting an education for
himself made him a pioneer in securing the
opportunities for an education for others.
It meant faith in the night, patience under
criticism, persistency when hope had fled,
and all the energies of his remaining public
life, but to this he was consecrated ; and
inspired by a consciousness of duty he went
cheerfully to his task. **********

" Dr. Cheney remained at the head of the
institution until he resigned on the twenty-
second day of September, 1894 — just forty
years work to a day. From its beginning it
has. gone steadily forward, increasing in at-
tendance and facilities, gaining favor with
the public and making its impress upon the
world, until it stands among the first colleges
of the state. To bring such an institution
into existence, to shape a policy for it that
would overcome prejudice, disarm criticism,
and make for it lasting friends, a policy
broad enough to be unsectarian, deep enough
to meet the approval of the staunchest Free
Baptist, to make it the first college in New
England to open its doors to men and women
on equal terms, to carry it through dis-
couraging years, to rally friends again and
again to rescue it from apparently hopeless
defeat — all this has required the qualities of
a Moses and an Elijah, qualities that Dr.
Cheney had, and which he so used for an
institution that when he delivered the keys
to his successor he said, ' There is not a tree
or building or spot on the campus but seems
a part of myself.'

OREN B. CHENEY 280

" Although so much of Dr. Cheney's own
life has been devoted to the interests of the
college, he has found opportunity and love for
other service to his denomination and the
world. Fifteen times he has been a delegate
to our General Conference, fourteen in suc-
cession, and over three of the sessions he has
presided. He has been our representative to
the General Baptists of England, and to other
religious bodies in this country and the
Provinces. He has been recording secretary
of the Foreign and Home Mission societies,
president of the Education and Anti-slavery
societies, and was president of the Foreign
Mission Society from 1886 to the time that
its work was turned over to the Conference
Board. For many years he was one of the
assistant editors of The Morning Star when
Wm. Burr was editor. It was through his
influence that John Storer was led to give
$10,000 for the founding of Storer College.
While at West Lebanon he represented the
Whigs and Free Soilers in the Legislature of
185 1-2, and voted for the original Maine
temperance law.

* * * *****

" What has been the secret of Dr. Cheney's
success ? If it would not appear presumptu-
ous for me to express an opinion, I should
say that this success has been largely due,
first, to early Christian training ; second, to
an early experience in personal relations with
God ; and, third, to a willingness to be led.
Observation and experience show that the
best teachers are those willing to be taught,
and the best leaders are those willing to be

290 LIFE AND WORK OF

led. Growing out of these three fundamental
conditions we find fidelity to conviction,
manifest not only in connection with the
great work of establishing the college, but in
relation to temperance, the anti-slavery move-
ment, and other reforms of the past fifty
years. We also find among the leading
characteristics of the man, industry first, last, '
and always prominent. And then we see
gentleness and determination hand in hand,
rather a rare combination, but, when well
constituted, a most efficient one. It is worthy
of note that Dr. Cheney's most aggressive
work has not been accomplished through con-
tention, forensic debate, or artifice, but
through frank and reasonable persistency.
It shows how right endeavor for what is right
must eventually succeed. It always appeared
to us that he made a study of men, and that
he knew how to make good use of what he
learned. Reliance upon God was marked in
every new departure and every trying event.
" It is a matter of just pride when one has
passed through an eventful public life with
no stain upon the character, no mark of dis-
honesty, no act unworthy a Christian. This
is true in his case, and the other fact also
that he has accomplished much that will
benefit the whole world.

The following extracts are taken from an article
written by N. C. Brackett, Ph.D., a short time
before Dr. Cheney's death and later published in
The Lewiston Sun :

" Some men accomplish their purpose ap-
parently by force. Other men make way by

OREN B. CHENEY 291

their imperious will power. Dr. Cheney drew
men to him and to his cause by love.

"When Wm. Toothaker of Phillips was
counting out his rive thousand dollars, he
said, ' Bro. Cheney, I have three reasons for
giving you this money. I think it will please
you, please the brethren and please the Lord.'

" Dr. Cheney was necessarily in some hard
fights, but he was not a fighter. He had
neither time, strength nor inclination to fight
those who opposed his plans. He simply
pressed on with his work. He won his
victories with tears rather than blows. To
abusive letters and criticism, he seldom made
any reply.

"There were strong and good men in the
denomination in New England who did not
see the wisdom of his course in making a
college of Maine State Seminary. Probably
they were more numerous than those who
opposed his course at the beginning, but
gradually by his persistence and the logic of
events, they were won over to consent if not
to active co-operation. One of the secrets
of Dr. Cheney's success was his ability to
sink himself in his cause. He was never self-
assertive, never seemed to be pushing a
theory or a plan because it was his. Few
men could so forget themselves in a cause as
Dr. Cheney.

"Though a man of strong political convic-
tions he never aspired to figure in politics, but
his native foresight and clearness of convic-
tion made him a power in the politics of both
State and Nation. More than one position
was secured under the State and National

292 LIFE AND WORK OF

Government by Dr. Cheney, while the world,
and possibly the recipient, credited it mainly
to other influences.

" Nature gave Dr. Cheney a pleasant voice,
. gentle manners, a comely form as well as a
clear intellect. He gave to the church of his
choice, and to the cause he espoused a sin-
gleness of purpose and such rare consecra-
tion as few, very few, have power to give.
That Dr. Cheney was the founder of Bates
College goes without saying. But few insti-
tutions are so fully the work of one heart and
brain as Bates College.

" For almost forty years from the time of
his inception of the scheme to found a semi-
nary to the date of his resignation, more than
a generation from the small beginning, he
had planned and worked and prayed for the
Institution.

" When he left the chair that he had filled
so long and honorably, he had the satisfac-
tion of seeing it filled by one of his own
graduates, and the man of his choice, while
the able Faculty had been selected in the same
way. The wisdom of his selections is proved
by the high position Bates College occupies
today.

" Personally, I never met Dr. Cheney till a
few months before the opening of Maine
State Seminary, though I had for years been
familiar with his name and had read with
deep interest the articles in The Morning Star
signed O. B. C. Since that time I have met
him many times from 1857 to 1880 not only
as a student at the Seminary, but at our
annual and triennial gatherings of different

OREN B. CHENEY 293

organizations. I have seen him in hard
places, when he was being opposed and
criticised ; sometimes seen him the victim of
cruel blows by men who could not understand
his motives or did not approve his methods,
but never once in these years have I seen
him strike back.

"Though Dr. Cheney holds a very high
place in the esteem of his church, and of the
people of Maine generally, I do not think
the greatness of his services to the church
and the State are yet appreciated.

" Jacob Riis characterizes President Roose-
velt as 'The man who does things.' The
same may with special force be said of Dr.
Cheney."

Until the last few years of his life Dr. Cheney
was called upon to preach many occasional ser-
mons, as for instance, that at the Semi-Centennial
of the Free Baptist Foreign Missionary Society,
and it seems fitting that an extract be given
from at least one of them.

Because of its bearing on present day problems,
we make selections from a sermon delivered at a
Convention, held in Lawrence, Mass., May 2,
1877 ; this with the double purpose of showing
President Cheney's spirit and style and of noting
his opinions from the view-point of thirty years
ago:

" The committee authorized to call this
convention, in inviting me to read a twenty
minutes paper has assigned me as a subject,
' Denominational Adhesiveness.''

294 LIFE AND WORK OF

" ' I dwell among mine own people,' said
the woman of Shunem to the prophet of the
Lord, when he suggested to her the idea of
leaving her own people for a home with
another people.

" ' But can I do nothing for you,' I seem
to hear him say, ' in return for your kindness
to me ? Wouldest thou not be spoken for to
the king, or to the captain of the host ? '

" ' No, I thank you, sir,' I seem to hear her
say in reply. ' I am satisfied with my station
in life. There may or there may not be honor
in it. Suffice it to say that I am simply in
the place which God in his providence has
assigned me, and I am content to remain in
it. Certainly, I am happy where I am — I
find work enough to do, and my happiness
consists in being at work. I hope I am of
some consequence with my own people. I
am not certain I should be of any with
another people. I trust I am dear to my
people, but one thing I know, my people are
dear to me.

" ' You are a prophet of the Lord, sir, and
you doubtless mean well in the suggestion
you make, but great men do not always advise
others the most wisely ; so please go your
way and continue to perform the work to
which your Divine Master has called you,
and leave me to worship the same God you
worship and perform services for Him where
I am. I ask no more. You are welcome to
all my kindnesses.'

" This woman is called a ' great ' woman
in the Bible, and she is a great woman
on the page of history, for what is greatness

OREN B. CHENEY 295

but to be decided in the hour when decision
is called for, because some principle or pre-
cious interest is at stake.

" I have dwelt among the people repre-
sented by this convention for more than
forty-two years, that is, I have been a mem-
ber of one of their churches for that length
of time. I have really dwelt among them
from a child. I was born among them and
though they are not a perfect people, being
like all other Christian people in this respect,
yet knowing that they have made great prog-
ress in Christian work, and believing that
they are on the road to still greater progress,
I am content to remain among them ; to re-
main to share their joys if they have them,
or if they have trials and burdens to bear, to
share the trials and help bear the burdens,
and a few of my reasons follow :

" i. We are a people respectable in num-
bers. It is true we are a small people when
compared with some denominations, and yet
we are a large people when compared with
others.

" In round numbers we have 1400 churches,
1400 ministers, and 75,000 church members.
Our membership in Maine is 15,000, and I
understand that the Maine Young Men's
Christian Association has estimated our con-
gregations in Maine at 50,000 persons. On
this estimate our entire congregations would
number 250,000. Now, I think it is safe to
say there are as many more, that if reached
at all by religious influences, must be reached
by our people — I mean this — that if they are
to hear the gospel preached at all, they must

296 LIFE AND WORK OF

hear it from the lips of our ministers ; if their
children are to attend any Sunday schools,
they must attend those under our supervision.
In other words there are one-half million of
people, or one-eightieth of the whole popu-
lation of the country, that are religiously
under our special influence, and for whose
moral training, we as a denomination are re-
sponsible, and this, to say nothing of the
millions in heathendom. I care not, then,
whether we are called or whether we call our-
selves, small or great, certain it is, we have
upon us great responsibilities — solemn too
they are — and so great and so solemn that we
must not allow ourselves to trifle with them.

" But granting that we call ourselves small,
it does not follow that we ought not to exist
as a distinct people ; that in God's great plan
of saving men there is no more need of us,
we have no mission to fulfill, no special work
to perform. Why did not God select one of
the larger denominations to lead the way in
the earlier days of Anti-slavery reform ? Why
was it that there was but one little Star to
shine in the black heavens of those days ? I
do not known unless it be that it is not by
might or by power but by the spirit of the
Lord.

" The civil policv under which we live is
presented as a model government for the
world ; and yet it recognizes small states as
well as large ones ; Delaware, Rhode Island,
and New Hampshire, as well as Ohio, Penn-
sylvania and New York ; and it is known
that the government never could have been
organized without this recognition.

OREN B. CHENEY 297

" One thing I will say in this connection
as a crumb of comfort to the Delawarean, or
the Rhode Islander, or the man of the Granite
State, that while the man of Ohio, or Penn-
sylvania or New York dwells amidst more
acres, more numbers, and more wealth, yet he
it is, the man of the small state, that is of
the more consequence in the body politic —
that has the greater political influence ; his
vote actually counts more.

" 2. We have great interests on our hands
to be cared for, and it is my duty to help
care for them. We have academies, semi-
naries, colleges and theological schools that
the simple moral wants of society, throwing
our existence as a separate religious people
entirely out of the question, demand should
not only be kept alive, but should be brought
quickly into a more vigorous life, and yet so
far as we can see, and others can see for us,
will surely cease to live if we take our hands
from under them. Therefore, every minister
who leaves us gives a blow to our institution
at Harper's Ferry, and to our educational
work in this country and in India. He may
say he does not mean to do this thing, but he
does it notwithstanding.

" God compels no man to vow unto him,
but when he has vowed, he will hold him to
pay that which he has vowed.

"3. There are new fields to be cultivated
and it is my duty to help cultivate them.
Our first duty, as it seems to me, is to put
all our existing interests that are worthy to
live into a good and healthy condition. This
being done, we shall have just the preparation

298 LIFE AND WORK OF

we need to enter upon the work of lengthen-
ing our cords and bringing new lands within
our enclosures to be cultivated.

" 4. We have a special work on our hands,
the consummation of the union of all liberal
Baptists. We are committed to an effort in
this direction by the action of our General
Conference, held in Strafford, Vt., in 1833 —
44 years ago — and by the action of several
Conferences held since that time. The union
of The Morning Star and the Baptist Union
commits us anew to such an effort. We are
the larger liberal Baptist body, and therefore
it is proper and to be expected that we take
the initiative in bringing about a union which
I think all parties interested, acknowledge
should be effected. The general interests of
religion require that this union should be
consummated, and this within a reasonable
length of time.

"The statistics of the Liberal Baptists in the
United States and British Provinces outside
our own body, I have not at hand, but the num-
ber consists of many thousands. Then there
are 25,000 in England. Now, has not the time
fully come for a practical union of all Liberal
Baptists ? Should they not go so far as to
meet in convention once in five years, or
what might be better, in an Association regu-
larly organized ? Should not their statistics
be annually published in one book ? Our
Register is good, but I desire to see some-
thing better, something more comprehensive,
something that shall do justice to the princi-
ples and work which we represent. Had I
not been called so suddenly away from

OREN B. CHENEY 299

Europe, it was my purpose to consult with
some of our brethren in England on this sub-
ject.

" 5. The members of our denomination
should remain together and I should remain
with them, because that which many desire,
our union with the larger Baptist body, will
the sooner be effected.

"It will be 100 years on the 30th of June,
1880, since our first church was organized.
It was at New Durham, N. H., and the church
organized there, and then was simply a Bap-
tist church, and Rev. Benjamin Randall, who
organized it, was simply a Baptist minister,
but Benjamin Randall believed in a general
atonement. He was an Arminian, not a
Calvinist, and the origin of our denomination
lies in the fact that ' he did not preach the
doctrine of election as Calvin held it.'

" We are to bear in mind that Randall did.
not intend to found a new denomination any
more than our republican fathers intended
to establish a government independent of
Great Britain. Our fathers were led in a way
they knew not. So was Randall. The course
he took in putting himself at the head of
another Christian people was not one of
choice. It was his only course and he must
be justified today upon the page of history.

" Randall desired simply to be let alone,
and allowed to preach the gospel as he be-
lieved it, and because this was not conceded
him, we are here today in this Convention as
a separate people.

" But shall we always remain a separate
people? I think not. Shall we ever be

300 LIFE AND WORK OF

reunited with the larger Baptist body ? I think
we shall be. Is it desirable we should be ?
I think so, provided a union could be brought
about honorable to both parties. A union
certainly would prove an immense saving of
men and money, and cause many a village
and neighborhood in our country, now a
spiritually barren land, to ' bud and blossom
as the rose.'

" We all admit that a separation for such a
cause could not be now effected. If this case
were to be tried again — and this in our day —
there would be a different verdict. In other
words, there would be no denomination like
ours founded on the question, raised in
the days of Randall, for, whatever be the
creeds of Baptist churches or the doctrines
taught in Baptist Theological Schools, Bap-
tist ministers, so far as I know, are allowed
to preach the atonement as they believe it —
what Randall was not allowed to do — and in
preaching it, they preach it as fully and as
freely as Randall. ' And the spirit and the
bride say, come. And let him that heareth
say, come. And let him that is athirst,
come. And whosoever will, let him take the
water of life freely.'

" What follows then from what I have said
under this head. It is this : We are not re-
sponsible for being a separate people, and there-
fore all we have to do is to work on as we are
— together always — until those who are re-
sponsible, our brethren of the larger Baptist
body, shall take the initiative for a union.

" Keeping together, then, and building our-
selves as a people, we shall be a stronger

OREN B. CHENEY 301

force to help bring about a union of all Bap-
tists, and the stronger we are, so much more
respect we shall receive; so much more
influence we shall have and the sooner that
which many of our own number and many in
the larger Baptist body desire — namely, the
union of all Baptists— will be consummated.

" Of course I am understood in what I say.
I do not mean that a man is bound in chains
to a religious denomination, for, if there be
in his mind an honest change of views, then
it is not only his right, but his duty to leave
that denomination, and he is to be respected
for leaving ; and there is a reason why, other
things being equal, a man may leave a larger
denomination for a smaller, both being in a
good healthy state and with good prospects
of a permanent existence, and the reason is,
he may be needed more among the smaller
people ; but to speak frankly, I have not a
very great respect for a man who leaves a
denomination only to go from a smaller to a
larger body, or to get a larger salary, or to get
rid of burdens or trials, or because he is not
noticed enough, or cannot have his own way.
How can I respect him when he is not re-
spected by the people he leaves, nor by people
to whom he goes. The truth is, denomina-
tions do not make men. Men are, under God,
what they make themselves, only let them be
humble enough to walk in the path that
Providence marks out for them, then they
will be contented, happy, useful, successful,
the world made better, and new glory will be
added to the name of Christ.

302 LIFE AND WORK OF

" I say, then, repeating in substance what
I have already said, that we are not at liberty
to forget our solemn covenant obligations,
betray the confidence we have reposed in
each other, run away from the folds of which
the Great Shepherd has put us in charge and
leave the wolves to break in and devour the
sheep. This would be unmanly, cowardly,
absolutely wicked, but we should go right
on with our work, bringing more and more
souls into the kingdom of Christ, and giving
more and more glory to Christ ; for this is all
we are aiming after. This is the sum of the
whole matter. We should go on just as if we
were to be a distinct people as long as the
world stands, and not trouble ourselves unnec-
essarily about a union with the larger body.
The union will come in God's own good
time. I do not expect to live to see it. When
the influences now working for its coming are
ripe, then it will come and no man or num-
ber of men can hinder it, and then our Gen-
eral Conference, to whom this whole question
belongs, so far as we are concerned, will be
prepared and disposed to act wisely.

"I surely should hope the Conference
would say : ' Yes, we will return, we will
come in on terms that shall seem fair and
honorable to all fair and honorable men.
##•.#■#■#■#'*#

And so the whole lump being leavened, in
the good time coming, we all, as Baptists,
would have one Table, as well as one Lord,
07ie Faith and one Baptism."

OREN B. CHENEY 303

In announcing Dr. Cheney's death, the Lewis-
ton Evening Journal of Dec. 22, 1903, says:

" The news of Dr. Cheney's death comes as
a severe shock to all his friends and asso-
ciates. He was known to be showing many
signs of his advancing age, almost 90 years,
but he was still able to be out and about the
town until so recently that his end was not
foreseen. It is difficult to over-estimate or
overstate what Dr. Cheney has been to Bates
College and to Lewiston. He was a founder
in instinct and in impulse.

" His idea was pioneering, to blaze away
into new paths. He did all of this and more
as a founder and a leader of educational life
in this part of the country. Bates College
will pay him reverence and Lewiston and
Auburn will not forget what is due this
remarkable man."

The issue of Dec. 23d, has the following
memorial editorial :

" No man, whose death has occurred in
Maine in many a day, should leave behind him
memorial more secure and lasting than Dr.
Oren Burbank Cheney, whose death occurred
in Lewiston on Dec. 2 2d, at the age of 87
years.

" Dr. Cheney was one of the rare and un-
usual composite types of founder, developer,
executive. He not only devised and divined
but he executed. He not only laid out but he
stood by ; never conceding to disaster any

304 LIFE AND WORK OF

foothold in any institution in whose welfare
he was interested. The life of such a man
should not close without due appreciation.
It should certainly not pass into forgetfulness.
Bates College and Lewiston will be recreant
of duty if in some enduring form there be not
some monument to the memory of this remark-
able man, who, in the beginnings, saw the
end and who long ago, with faith renewed
daily in his own indomitable heart, took up
the burdens uncomplainingly for the cause of
education, humanity and justice.

" Dr. Cheney was not what the world called
a brilliant man. By that we mean that he
was not a magnetic public speaker, or a dis-
tinguished scholar, or an author. He might
have been either of the latter, had he found
the time for the scholar's study that he de-
voted to the executive business of his life-
work, but, early in life, he became a disciple
of doing things. Born of a family distin-
guished for business or diplomatic life, his
bent was towards the constructive side of
educational work, towards the founding of
schools, the management of their widening
influences, the shaping of their policy, and
the extension of their influences. A teacher of
remarkable ability, said to have been a moral
influence in every school over which he ever
presided, his restless soul was continually
asking for enlarged opportunities for the
youth of the land and begging of itself the
question of its own duty. It is thus that we
see that Dr. Cheney became a pioneer.
Andrew Carnegie says ' Pioneering does not
pay,' but President Cheney's pioneering was

OREN B. CHENEY 305

of a different sort. He found the New Eng-
land country life, especially in Maine, a-hun-
gering and athirst for education. He saw
boys, who like himself, walked fifty miles
anon over the hills to the little barren acad-
emy struggling for existence amid the snows
of a bleak Maine country side.

" A teacher become preacher, a principal
become proselytizer, a man of affairs feeling
the blood of a line of business ancestry stir-
ring within him, Dr. Cheney could not endure
these conditions. Many times he has said
to the writer : ' I simply could not see these
ambitious boys and girls ask for instruction
and not receive it.' He planned and he
founded. He was in at the beginnings, and
thus all over Maine the influence of this man
whose death closed his earthly career on
Tuesday, has beneficently extended, as a spur
to educational and moral reforms. A list of
schools that Dr. Cheney either founded by
personal effort or assisted to found conjointly
with others, is significant of his activity and
his faith. Parsonsfield Seminary, Lebanon
Academy, Maine State Seminary, Maine Cen-
tral Institute, Storer College at Harper's
Ferry, Bates College, Cobb Divinity School
— all of these owe to Dr. Cheney a personal
debt of gratitude if not their very existence,
and in all of them was he personally interested
as either founder or friend in the very hours
of their conception.

" For such a life as this, there need be no
apologies. The man who foresees, upbuilds,
dominates in this wise is a man beyond com-
mon measure. His ideals must essentially

306 LIFE AND WORK OF

be lofty, his aspirations true, his head sound,
his judgment level, his faith serene, his heart
pure, his zeal unbounded. He must work —
oh, how he must work. With what self-sacri-
fices must he endow his household and with
what martyrdom must he hide his personal
need or desire. All this has come to Presi-
dent Cheney. All this, Bates College knows.
No alumnus, no professor, no friend, has seen
the feeble figure of the white-haired first
President pass or repass the familiar places
but has seemed to feel that he was carrying
bravely into the closing days the lightened
memories of those days of stress and toil,
those days of doubt, almost of despair.

" In moral reform, Dr. Cheney was also a
pioneer. He was an original abolitionist
when an original abolitionist meant some-
thing. He was an original prohibitionist.
He gave the first diploma ever given to a
woman graduate from a New England Co-
educational College. He opened the doors of
Bates College to the colored man. He was
a founder of the Republican party in Maine.
He was again and again at the front in de-
nominational matters in the Free Baptist
churches in Maine and New England, and a
founder even there of numerous societies to
extend its work.

" In memorial to President Cheney, there-
fore, let it be said that few lives have been
more productive than his. To found a col-
lege such as Bates, is no pastime. He who
conceives the idea ; consecrates his life ; en-
dows it with his faith and zeal — he is a man,
a whole man, a great man. As years pass

OREN B. CHENEY 307

and the college grows, so will the apprecia-
tion of its alumni, if that were possible, and
so will the appreciation of this city of Lewis-
ton on whom no man has conferred a greater
blessing socially, educationally, industrially,
economically, than has this pioneer of Maine
education, Dr. O. B. Cheney."

In an editorial, the Lewiston Sun of Dec. 23,
1903, thus expresses appreciation :

" Lewiston owes a large debt to this active,
noble man. He has brought to this com-
munity its highest educational institution,
with its faculty, its large student body, its
ideals and aspirations. His enterprise has
helped establish many homes here, has in-
creased values in real estate and personal
property, has year by year put in circulation
among our merchants many thousands of dol-
lars ; he has helped give the young new and
lofty ideals, to make an education possible to
many ; he has by his achievements in edu-
cation changed the careers of thousands of
young people, and through them has affected
their homes and all the work which they have
been permitted to do. A life devoted to mak-
ing other lives better and nobler and more
useful does not end with its own deeds and
its own years. There is an earthly immor-
tality for such a man, even though the
measure of it is beyond common vision.

"Besides the brother, Hon. Elias H.
Cheney of Curacoa, three sisters survive, Mrs.
J. H. Lord of Wollaston, Mass., Mrs. J. F. P.
Smith of Meredith, N. H., and Mrs. Harriet

308 LIFE AND WORK OF

C. Bonney of Denver, Col.; Mrs. C. H. Swan
of Roxbury, Mass., and Mrs. J. F. Boothby
of Lewiston, are the only surviving children.
There are eight grandchildren living."

The following tributes of appreciation from the
hearts and pens of some of Dr. Cheney's co-
workers were published in the Lewiston Journal
of Dec. 23, 1903 :

FROM PROF. JORDAN

Prof. L. G. Jordan, acting president at all times
in the absence of President Chase, was free to ex-
press his personal loss in this death. Said he :

" President Cheney was born at the right
time. For a person of his instincts and tem-
perament the times and conditions in which
he passed his youth and early manhood pre-
sented a stirring and inviting field. The
political, educational and religious world
needed just such a man, and with youthful
enthusiasm and characteristic loyalty he re-
sponded to that need.

" He was a practical evolutionist ■ yet his
mind did not dwell so much upon the origin
of present conditions as upon ultimate results.
What he saw before him was significant
mainly for what it might become. With a
profound religious faith he was essentially an
optimist, and his strong and definite con-
victions were equalled by his courage.

"With such characteristics and living in
such times he was naturally connected with

OREN B. CHENEY 309

most of the great movements that developed
during the period of his active life. While
his work was largely confined to the varied
interests of his own religious denomination
his mind was constantly reaching out into
the world of universal interests, and state
and nation alike felt the force of his large
views and intelligent thought.

" In the founding of Bates College, the
problems with which he had to deal and the
difficulties that had to be overcome, were
more perplexing and varied than usually arise
in establishing an institution of learning.
The kindly tact, persistence and intelligent
faith which he manifested under those con-
ditions was most gratifying to his friends,
and finally won the approval and co-operation
of those who had previously had different
plans and views.

" It was natural that his characteristics
should be very forcibly impressed upon many
of his students. He was much inclined to
take the students into his confidence and
while he interested himself in their work he
freely made known to them his own plans and
often inspired them with something of his
own sublime faith and courage. Many of the
young men whom he gathered about him in
the later years of the Maine State Seminary
and in the beginning of Bates College received
impressions from him that have had a strong
influence on their subsequent lives. Some of
these persons certainly will always hold in
grateful remembrance the help and encourage-
ment thus received.

" It was very pleasant to notice that even

310 LIFE AND WORK OF

in the last months of his life his hopes and
plans for interests that were dear to his heart
did not grow dim or lose their force. Only
a few weeks ago sitting upon the steps of the
Hedge Laboratory he spoke of the way in
which that building should be enlarged, how
the new library building would look when its
front upon Bardwell street should be erected,
and pointed out places on the campus where
buildings of various kinds would soon be seen.
" He also spoke in very kind and apprecia-
tive terms of those who had been associated
with him, both in the planning and in the
management of the institution which he so
much loved."

FROM PROF. J. Y. STANTON

None feel more appreciative of Dr. Cheney's
noble work and high ideals than Prof. J. Y. Stan-
ton, who worked beside the deceased through all
the struggles of the institution. Said he on
Wednesday :

" Dr. O. B. Cheney, the founder of Bates
College and its first president, devoted more
than forty years of his life to one great work
which, in its influence, I believe, is never to
end. In this respect, his life has been most
fortunate and unique.

" When we speak of President Cheney as
the founder of Bates College, we do not forget
the unsparing generosity of Mr. Bates, the
untiring zeal of Dr. Cheney's associates

OREN B. CHENEY 311

among the trustees and in the faculty. Espe-
cially we do not forget the noble character of
the graduates, without whose support the
college could never have become a permanent
institution. But the conception that a col-
lege could be founded here, the surpassing
courage, the indomitable will, and the stead-
fast faith that brought it into successful
operation was President Cheney's and Presi-
dent Cheney's alone. Neither luck nor chance
ever founded a college. With the approval
of Providence, President Cheney's great
characteristics made him a founder of the
college. His courage, his will and faith
brought his life to a successful issue.

" Dr. Cheney was most abiding in his
friendships. I have been acquainted with
him since I was ten years old. In these
many years, not a word or an act of his has
led me to believe that he was not a most sin-
cere friend.

"Dr. Cheney's trust in the eternal princi-
ples of right and justice was so great that
where his conscience approved no misfort-
une could deter him.

"One who never turned his back, but

marched breast forward ;
Never doubted clouds would break ;
Never dreamed, though right were

worsted, wrong would triumph ;
Held we fall to rise, are baffled to fight

better, sleep to wake."

812 LIFE AND WORK OF

FROM PROF. J. H. RAND

Prof. J. H. Rand, a member of the first class to
graduate from the college and long at the head of
the mathematics department, says :

" My first knowledge of Dr. Cheney was
not directly personal. A few years before
my earliest recollection, he was, for two years,
principal of the seminary at Parsonsfield, my
native town. His strong personality and his
abiding influence upon the people of the
town are shown by the fact that, in after
years, children and youth were taught to
know and to reverence him.

" This was true in my own case. The name
of Mr. Cheney (for he was then known as
such) was a household word in my, house.
I learned of him mostly through an uncle and
an aunt, who were his pupils, and my grand-
father, who was associated with him in church
work. Often have I listened by the hour,
with rapt attention, to accounts of what Mr.
Cheney did or said. So carefully was his
personal appearance described to me, that I
formed in my child-mind a picture of him
which remains vivid even now. While there
at Parsonsfield he became distinguished for
strong and outspoken advocacy of temper-
ance, anti-slavery and higher education. In
after years the deciding consideration that
led me to the Maine State Seminary was the
fact that there I should be under the direct
influence of Dr. Cheney of whom I had known
so much.

" I well recollect the place, the day, the

OREN B. CHENEY 313

hour, almost, of my first meeting with him,
and the very hearty, cordial reception he
gave me. He made me feel that in me he
had a personal interest and that in him I
should find a helpful friend. Such he has
always been, and such he has been to all the
many young men and young women who have
come under his influence. I have referred
briefly to some things that I know of his
early life work. The great, the crowning
mark of his life has been the founding and
upbuilding of Bates College.

" Comparatively few have done so much to
influence for good the lives of so many of
their fellow-men as has Dr. Cheney. Truly,
his has been a noble life."

FROM PROF. T. L. ANGELL

Said Prof. T. L. Angell, who was for many-
years at the head of the department of modern
languages at Bates :

" In the death of Pres. O. B. Cheney, whom
I have known for more than thirty years and
with whom I have been intimately associated,
I suffer a keen sense of personal loss.

" Years ago I heard it said of him that he
never betrayed nor forsook his friends, a
characteristic certainly none too common to-
day among men. Two features of his life
have long impressed me, namely, his unswerv-
ing fidelity to his great life-work, the building
up of Bates College, and his unfailing good
cheer in the prosecution of his work. After
returning from a trip to Europe with Dr.

314 LIFE AND WORK OF

Cheney, Gov. Dingley remarked that he never
saw a man that lived more exclusively for one
object and bent every energy more persist-
ently to its attainment than did the doctor.
And James G. Blaine once said in my hear-
ing that when in the early days of the college,
President Cheney came to the Maine Legis-
lature seeking aid for the struggling institu-
tion, he, Blaine, told his fellow-members that
they might just as well give the sum desired
soon as late, for the doctor would continue to
come until he received it.

" A brief experience in soliciting funds for
any object, however worthy, will satisfy any
sane man that he has undertaken one of the
the most trying, most depressing occupations
open to man. Dr. Cheney with his high code
of honor and with his keen sensitiveness to
indifference even, knew as few men have
known, the weight of the burden borne. Yet
he faltered not for a moment, but with an un-
ceasing love for the work in hand and with
an unwavering faith in its ultimate success he
kept steadily and cheerfully on, and lived to
see the glad fruition of all his toil. The
closing months and years of his life were
marked by all that serenity of spirit that
must and does attend the retrospect of every
well-spent life."

FROM HON. H. W. OAKES
Said Hon. Henry W. Oakes of Auburn :

"I learned of the death of President
Cheney with a feeling of personal sorrow.
My acquaintance, begun as a student in Bates

OREN B. CHENEY 315

College about thirty years ago, has continued
as I have known him well in the relations of
later years, in a growing appreciation of the
qualities which made him a leader in great
affairs, and the intimate personal friend and
adviser of a great number of people.

" He was a broad man, with large views,
judging wisely of the future, and while per-
haps he 'builded better than he knew,' yet
he knew more of the nature of his work and
of its necessary results than most men. His
faith was absolute, and he did not hesitate to
mortgage the future in the development of his
life-work.

" Events have justified him. The college
which more than all men together, he might
have claimed as his own handiwork, witnesses
the genius of its first president, and as it
develops along the lines which he projected,
will, in a constantly increasing degree, speak
of his wisdom and courage and foresight."

Said Hon. W. H. Judkins, one of the trustees of
the college :

" Dr. Cheney's life illustrates in a noble
manner the possible achievements of sublime
faith combined with extraordinary work. He
was a poet in imagination, a prophet in his
outlook for the future, and a builder of great
things on broad foundations. I firmly believe
that his position in our State will be large
and enduring."

316 LIFE AND WORK OF

At the funeral, Prof. A. W. Anthony, D.D.,
said :

" In summing up what has already been said
this afternoon, we must remember how far a
life reaches when it engages in educational
work. Because of Dr. Cheney there has
come into this community its highest educa-
tional institution, hither have been gathered
a corps of trained teachers, bringing to your
doors the inspiration of other colleges and
universities, of travel and residence abroad,
of rare culture and discriminating judgment.
All this by the life of the founder of Bates
College has been made real. And students
by the thousand have in the few years now
passed been attracted here, sometimes bring-
ing father and mother with them, to found a
new home. Even business has been created
and stimulated by the college. Then your
lives have been drawn out, enlarged, aroused,
almost reformed by the training here received.
These lives have gone forth into the various
professions and callings, living more largely,
achieving greater results, because of this one
man's vision and persevering work.

" Such a life is not ended. It has its rich
reward beyond our sight ; it has its great
fruition here also in the lives of others. So
long as men think and will and strive, does
the work of a teacher continue in those who
have been taught, who then give out to others
and pass on for eternity the effects of their
lives.

" No life richer in its ultimate fruitage has
gone out in many a day than that of Dr. O.
B. Cheney. His mission was plain ; his call

OREN B. CHENEY 317

was specific ; his life clean and pure; his
Christian hope undimmed ; his work so
practical as well as so idealistic that his
memory is sure to grow with the passing of
the years."

The following testimonial of friendship is from
Rev. John Malvern :

" Dr. O. B. Cheney, the Christian gentle-
man ; an indefatigable worker; a patient
plodder and waiter ; a wise planner ; the in-
spiration of his colleagues; the students'
helper ; the most sympathetic, tender-hearted
friend ; the sacrificing, devoted college Presi-
dent ; a sweet-spirited preacher and conscien-
tious teacher ; a superior presiding officer ;
a Free Baptist from principle ; a free-hearted,
whole-souled lover of men of all shades of
faith ; beloved by all denominations ; a wel-
come guest in all our homes ; and a com-
panion on whom we could rely. This is how
he appears to one who has known him for
four decades at least.

" He was sunshine on a cloudy day ; for,
when discouragements pressed upon all .about
him, his smiling face and cheery words in-
spired us with joy and dispelled our gloom.

" To those who lived nearest to him he
was a constant benediction, and to those who
lived far away his name was a household
word and became a synonym of Christian
manhood ; and fathers would say, < My son,
look at Dr. Cheney.'

" Many a boy will rise up and call him
blessed.

" 'The memory of the righteous is blessed.'

318 LIFE AND WORK OF

"That every household throughout our
broad land may perpetuate his memory in the
study of his biography let us devoutly pray."

The following testimonial gives a good insight
into President Cheney's relation to students of
the negro race. It is from Prof. N. C. Bruce,
class of 1893, Bates, who is now Principal of the
Bartlett High School, St. Joseph, Missouri :

" No one of us from Bates, white or black,
can do justice to its father and founder, Dr.
O. B. Cheney. My own heart is full of grati-
tude and love for what he was to me, my
brother Thomas, and my sister Emma.

" I was the seventh colored graduate from
Bates, following close behind Mr. Hatter,
class of 1888 of Harper's Ferry, the late Dr.
Morton, class of 1886 of New York, and the
deceased Mr. Wilson, class of 1884, Tuske-
gee, Alabama.

" After receiving several encouraging letters
from the revered President, whom I had
never seen, I entered Bates in 1889 and found
a College in which every environment seemed
helpful to the deserving poor youth of any
race from anywhere.

" President Cheney soon found me and gave
me his greeting and blessing and words of
great good cheer. Although his time was all
taken in the multitudinous duties of directing
and administering affairs at Bates and in
securing the necessary finances in those years
of stringency — work enough for two or more
great men — Dr. Cheney impressed us all as
our father, personal friend and guide. When

OREN B. CHENEY 319

he would return from his trips of hard work,
he seemed not to rest until he had seen me
and learned of my personal health and prog-
ress. My work, physical and spiritual,
seemed to please him. He often turned aside
to get me a job where I could earn something,
and more often would employ me himself.

" When he heard the Freshman declamation
of my class and I lost to a classmate, but
was rated number two with honorable men-
tion, his sympathy for me was so great that
he induced a friend to also give me a prize ;
but although I repeatedly tried to learn the
name of the donor he never told me until
after my graduation. Oh, he was so gracious
and reticent, kind and helpful !

" His whole countenance seemed in a halo
of glory when he knew he had said something
or done something to alleviate pain, soften
grief and ease a Bates student's burden, but
never did his fine face send out such quiet
radiance of joy and satisfaction as when
something was done for a colored student.

" He was to me not only father, but spirit-
ual guide. I came to compare him to our
blessed Lord, who, when he came in from
those Judean journeys could be found among
the poorest, comforting, cheering, doing good.
He used to take time and tell me of the
changes in the public conscience, illustrating
from chapters out of his own life as an early
abolitionist.

" ' When a young man and preacher,' he
would say, ' I used to pray for the bondmen
in the South, and it mattered not how faint
and slight the reference, some churchmen

320 LIFE AND WORK OF

would take offence and leave speedily. I was
often taken to task for what was called my
folly in expressing any sympathy for the
slaves in the forties and fifties. But I per-
sisted through it all, though I had to suffer
much through the loss of friends and their
support.' He would say: 'I tell you these
things that you may see the great advance
God has brought about.'

" I shall never forget the last talk I had
with him about work among my own race in
my own dear homeland of the South. Said
he among many other good things :

" < Mr. Bruce, do all the good you can and
yet remember that God was never in a hurry ;
He takes time, works thoroughly, never wastes
and has never been known to despise the
poor, the needy, the unfortunate. Follow
Him and be good.'

" I worship the name and memory of Dr.
Oren B. Cheney. They inspire me now and
will abide with me with added freshness to
to the end. If I have done aught of good, I
owe a great debt to his influence over me.
But I can never pass on enough help to others
to repay his memory for the good cheer,
courage, hope and inspiration he gave me."

It is fitting that an expression be given of the
wisdom and value of Dr. Cheney's work in con-
necting Cobb Divinity School with Bates College.

The following testimonial from J. A. Howe,
D.D., for many years Dean of that school, gives
to the reader his estimate of Free Baptist Theo-
logical indebtedness to Dr. Cheney :

OREN B. CHENEY 321

" Dr. Cheney was a far-seeing man. His
mind was ever active in studying methods by
which a better future for his denomination
could be secured. Out of his brooding came
the plan of having a New England Free Bap-
tist college, and later, of associating with it a
Free Baptist Theological School. What
appreciation belongs to his memory for the
former, need not here be told. But let not
the grateful remembrance due him for the
latter be forgotten.

" By the suggestion and efforts of Dr.
Cheney the theological school, sustained by
the Free Baptist Education Society at New
Hampton, was exchanged for Cobb Divinity
School. Whatever good the latter, by its
nearly forty years of service at Lewiston, has
accomplished by reason of its location and
support, should in some great measure
be credited to the man who had the sagacity
to foresee it, the courage to champion the
opening of the school in connection with
Bates College, and the skill to win from the
Education Society an approval of the under-
taking. Had his project been voted down as
too daring, and the school that was super-
seded been continued, no doubt it would have
still performed a useful service for our
churches. But at the time the change was
made a state of prolonged feebleness was be-
fore the school. A movement to find a new
location had been started, and tentative
negotiations for locating it at Haverhill,
Mass., that came to nothing, had been tried.

"By promising to begin a theological
school at Lewiston, as a department of the

322 LIFE AND WORK OF

College, give it a building, keep at least four
men in the faculty, free the Education Society
from any expense for its support, President
Cheney and the Bates trustees gratified the
Society with a proposition as liberal as it was
opportune. The Society willingly closed its
school and with its good will dismissed its
faculty, students and library to help inau-
gurate the new enterprise, Avhile it retained
its funds as a beneficiary endowment in aid
of students for the ministry.

" Time has justified its action. The wis-
dom of it no one challenges. By reason of it
the higher educational interests of Free Bap-
tists in New England were verified, their
theological school had its distinct individu-
ality ; its faculty became more adequate in
numbers with a reasonable salary. College
men in larger proportions were drawn to the
school, and non-college men sooner or later
were often drawn to the college ; the school
lived in the atmosphere of a stimulating,
scholarly environment ; social, literary and
religious advantages that only a city life pro-
vides, widened the outlook and culture of the
students. The beautiful Roger Williams Hall
later became a gift to the school, and the
school served as a source of a needed home
missionary supply for many small churches
not too remote from Lewiston. Let these
things be viewed as some of the results of
Dr. Cheney's action in behalf of our theologi-
cal interests.

" On his part it was a bold undertaking.
That the college was still but an infant
crying in the night, gave to his project a

OREN B. CHENEY 323

somewhat visionary aspect. He confidently
thought that the vision could be converted
into tangible reality. Before the trustees
voted to accept the hazard of supporting a
theological school, President Cheney had se-
cured pledges from men, more or less asso-
ciated in business with Mr. Bates, sufficient to
warrant the vote. But scarcely had the edu-
cation Society given up its school and the
one at Lewiston started on its voyage when
financial disasters came on like a flood and
swept away the promised gifts.

" Then came distress and grim determina-
tion. Dr. Cheney could not allow any
thought of retreat. The reproach of failure
would long sting him to the soul. He was
no Stoic. Actual failure would destroy so
great a promise of good to humanity and the
church, that any thought of it must not be
entertained. He made known the situation
to the churches. That alone, he thought,
would make its strong appeal. Among Free
Baptists of New England and beyond much
sympathy was felt. He went up to the
General Conference and laid the peril of the
conditions at Lewiston before that body
whose work he was doing.

" His request was referred to a committee,
the chairman of which was himself at the
head of a needy college. The report of the
committee made Dr. Cheney feel the rigor of
the teaching that every man must bear his
own burden. Cast down but not destroyed,
he went from the Conference to devise and
execute plans that ultimately carried college
and seminary safely through this period of

324 LIFE AND WORK OF

storm and stress. Mr. Bates gave him a
pledge of $100,000, if within five years from
the date of it the college would raise an equal
amount. Towards meeting that condition
the Education Society paid $25,000 accom-
panied by what proved to be a fatal reversion-
ary clause in case the theological school
should, at any time, be given up. By a sin-
gular piece of legalism that clause was ruled
by the court after Mr. Bates's death, to vitiate
the claim of the college to have met the con-
ditions of the pledge, since the college could
not show that Mr. Bates had consented to
count that gift as permanent.

" Notwithstanding the ruling of the court,
through the persistent efforts of Dr. Cheney
to secure Mr. Bates's pledge, $100,000 were
brought into the treasury of the institution.

" Dr. Cheney counted among his most use-
ful works what he was enabled to accomplish
for the Divinity School. It should not be
forgotten that at the beginning of the college
one principal aim with him was to secure for
his denomination a better educated ministry.
It might be safely said that he was probably
more governed by this high motive than by
any other. Influential with him he made it
influential in his appeal to the churches, and
when he pleaded with the Education Society
for its gift of $25,000, he wanted Bates as
a Christian College ever to be a purveyor of
the Divinity School.

" A slight, but none the less significant,
indication of his sleepless attention to what-
ever would enhance the interests of the
school is disclosed by its present name.

OREN B. CHENEY 325

'Theological School ' and 'Theological Semi-
nary ' were interchangeable names at New
Hampton. It suited better the prejudices of
the fathers for the Education Society to call
its school the Biblical School. President
Cheney desiring to honor Mr. J. L. H. Cobb,
a deacon of the Congregational church in
Lewiston, for his generous gifts to the col-
lege treasury, asked the trustees to give the
school the name it now bears, The Cobb
Divinity School.

" Thus came about the only known instance
in our country of a Divinity School of one
denomination bearing and commemorating
the name of a member of another denomi-
nation.

" That feature of the Divinity School com-
memorates as well the liberal mind of Dr.
Cheney. Before the churches he stood not
as a theologian, not as a sectarian partizan,
but as an educated minister having at heart
the welfare of his church. His labors in be-
half of the Free Baptist ministry and Divinity
School did not grow out of an intense doctri-
nal zeal. To the creed of the church which
he served, and of whose record he was proud,
and in which he was reared, he was a sincere
adherent. But the wideness of his evangeli-
cal mind was equal to that of the platform of
a united church. His orthodoxy was of the
progressive, rather than of the hard and fast
school. Brought into contact with the Chris-
tianity of men of all creeds and churches, he
found that Christian character and Christian
deeds were not limited to any one sect. The

326 LIFE AND WORK OF

cup of cold water in the name of Christ was
often put to his lips because he was a disciple,
by noble men and women of other churches
than his own.

" To pass equitable judgments of worth
according to the usefulness of different leaders
in the Free Baptist church is an impossible
thing. In answer to the question who of
them has best served its theological interests
some would mention Ransom Dunn, John J.
Butter or John Fullonton. President Cheney's
life moved in a different sphere from theirs
and its fruits cannot be compared with theirs.
But it can be said that among, those who
planned broadly for our theological schools
and executed skilfully wise projects for their
usefulness, he occupies a unique place. With-
out him what Cobb Divinity School is and
what it has done could not have been."

BATES COLLEGE TODAY

Some enterprises start vigorously only to end
in failure. It is suitable therefore to ask the
question : " Has all the sacrifice and output of
energy recorded in this life-story proved to be
worth while." Let us answer by taking a look at
Bates College twelve years after President
Cheney's resignation and see what is being built
on the foundations so carefully laid.

NEW BUILDINGS

In 1901-02, through the generosity of many
friends, and especially of Joseph A. Coram, Esq.,

OREN B. CHENEY 327

who contributed $20,000 for the purpose, a fine
brick and stone building was erected which bears
the name of Coram Library. Already its capacity
is being tested and in due time the extension pro-
vided for in the plan will need to be added.

The great need for a young Woman's Hall was
supplied in 1905 by the erection of a noble brick
structure, admirably adapted for the purposes for
which it was designed. This buildiug with a resi-
dent woman Dean to look after the interests of
the young women gives to the College a balance
whose need was long foreseen and planned for by
President Cheney.

At the Commencement of 1907, it was an-
nounced that a resident of Lewiston is about
to erect for the College an Auditorium con-
taining spacious and suitable rooms for the three
Literary Societies and for the Christian Associa-
tions, as well as a large audience room for the pub-
lic exercises of the institution.

BATES GRADUATES

From an article in The Morning Star, 1906, we
extract the following :

" There has been for years no important
educational gathering in the United States
at which Bates graduates have not been in
evidence as officers and speakers. Professor
Hanus, head of the distinctively educational
department of Harvard University, puts

328 LIFE AND WORK OF

Bates first among Eastern colleges in the
number and rank of her recent graduate edu-
cators. Bates has more sons presiding over
reputable secondary schools in New England
than has any other college. Even in New
Hampshire, where Dartmouth has such wide
and well-deserved influence, every leading
high school north of Laconia is said to have
a Bates principal.

" But it is Massachusetts that beyond any
other state is entrusting her educational work
to the care of our college. In popular edu-
cation Bates alumni are favorably known in
every state between the two oceans. ' Send
us a Bates man to be principal of our new
county high school,' is a recent message from
a school board in Montana, not a member of
which ever saw Bates College ; and similar
requests have been received this year from
California, New Mexico, Porto Rico, the
Sandwich Islands, and even from India and
China.

" To positions in colleges and universities
Bates has contributed about one out of every
twenty of her graduates. A Bates man was
re-elected this year as president of the Ameri-
can Institute of Instruction — the oldest edu-
cational association in the world. It was a
Bates graduate, now president of a leading
state university in the far west, who initiated
the movement that issued in the famous re-
port to the National Educational Association
of ' The Committee of Ten ' — perhaps the
most important educational paper of the
nineteenth century.

" Nor is it in education alone that the sons

OREN B. CHENEY 329

and the daughters of Bates have gained
honorable distinction. Her graduates repeat-
edly have been awarded first honors in the
great professional schools of our country.
And in the professions themselves they are
taking second place to those of no other col-
lege in America. ' Here is a collection of the
choicest poems that have been written dur-
ing the last decade,' said a London book-
seller to the writer a dozen years ago. A
swift survey of the contents disclosed the
presence of several compositions from the
pen of one of his former Bates students.

" For some years Bates has received more
students from a distance than has any other
Maine college. Naturally she draws a good
percentage of her membership from the ' Pine
Tree State,' but she has large delegations
from Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and
smaller ones from each of the New England
States, from New York, and from Canada.
During the last fifteen years she has nearly
trebled her students, and that without adver-
tising in any newspaper except the ' Star.'

" She has not a weak teacher in her entire
corps of instruction ; and the work in all her
departments is modern and progressive. She
will begin on September the 12th a new col-
lege year with a larger and stronger faculty
than ever before. The success of the Car-
negie subscription movement by which more
than $150,000 will soon be added to her
endowment is assured. The Bates Library
Memorial Fund of $10,000, just established
by Clement S. Houghton, of Boston, in
memory of his friend, Benjamin E. Bates, the

330 LIFE AND WORK OF

son of the Benjamin E. Bates whose name
our institution bears, and himself for twelve
years an honored trustee of our college, will
annually enrich our library shelves with the
latest valuable works of history, political
economy, mathematics and sciology.

" The George Colby Chase Lecture Fund
of $5,000 just established by some friend still
unknown will hereafter bring to Bates an-
nually for a series of lectures a recognized
authority in some great department of
thought and learning. New full courses are
to be given in education, in Semitic literature
and in the history of philosophy. The de-
partment of physical culture is to be re-or-
ganized and placed under the direction of
two of the most enthusiastic and competent
teachers in our country ; and equally im-
portant advances are to be made in other
directions.

" The best feature of Bates is still the stress
that she puts upon character. She is first of
all a Christian college, and among the activi-
ties of the now approaching new year those
of the Christian Associations, the class and
the college prayer-meetings, and the Bible
and Missionary classes will hold a foremost
place. Every young man entering Bates will,
as heretofore, give his pledge to abstain from
the use of all intoxicants ; and Christian teach-
ers and students will lead in the entire social
and intellectual life of the college. The enter-
ing class promises to be large and scholarly,
and there will be important accessions to
each of the upper classes. Never before has
Bates had so strong a claim upon the

OREN B. CHENEY 331

sympathy, the support, and the patronage of
the young people who read The Morning
Star, as in this, the forty-fourth year of her
existence."

ONE BATES BOY

The human mind dislikes generalities. It likes
to deal with life as expressed in individuals. We
hope, therefore, that it will not seem invidious if
we give the story of one Bates boy's life as de-
tailed in the College Bulletin :

AN HONORED BATES ALUMNUS

" Of all Bates graduates that have devoted
themselves distinctively to Science, Wendell,
of '68, easily holds the first place. He is one
of the relatively few men that have not only
been ' predestined ' to a specific work but
have 'made their calling and election sure.'
Wendell was a brilliant scholar through his
entire college course. He had, for his day,
received at the old academy in Dover, N. H.,
a remarkably fine preparation, and Bates was
his chosen college long before he left school.
President Cheney, in his rounds among boys
looking towards college, had breathed an
inspiring word into Wendell's ears. And,
undeterred by the protests of his Principal
and of other distinguished college graduates
living in Dover (and impressed by the young
fellow's promise), in hearty accord with the
wishes of his parents, he set his face reso-
lutely towards Bates. As on a sultry August
day, fresh from his home, full of the spirit of
romance and eager for college adventure, he

332 LIFE AND WORK OF

first came in sight of the Bates campus, then
nearly barren of trees, but partially graded,
enclosed on two sides by stump fences, and
boasting but two buildings, Hathorn and
Parker Halls — Hathorn Hall still unfinished
— -his heart leaped up within him, as he ex-
claimed, ' This is my College !' It was love
at first sight, — love that has never once fal-
tered in the nearly forty-three years since in
1864 he joined the second Freshman class
that entered Bates College. To his fervid
temperament and poetic imagination these
humble beginnings of a college were more
splendid and inspiring than to the average
youth are the ivy-wreathed halls of Yale, Har-
vard or Oxford.

" In the young but vigorous life of this new
College, Wendell was soon a central figure.
Alive to every opportunity, whether for study,
research or fun, eager, aspiring, and resource-
ful, he was an active factor in moulding the
character, shaping the history, and creating
the traditions of the Bates-to-be. No Bates
man has better impersonated our College
motto, 'Con Amore ac Studio.' Genial, ap-
preciative and kindly — withal occasionally
moody, dreamy, and given to quiet walks —
he was soon recognized by all as a man of
whom the College must be proud.

" Whatever he attempted he accomplished
with credit, whether in debate, composition,
or class-work. The whole world, whether of
nature, books or men, was of absorbing
interest to him. But it was in Mathematics
and the Sciences that he found his choicest
satisfaction, unless, indeed, it were in poetry.

OREN B. CHENEY 333

For he wonderfully combined the special
endowments of the exact and truth-seeking
Scientist with those of the meditative and
fancy-free Poet. This two-fold devotion found
expression at his graduation, when in addi-
tion to the Latin Salutatory he gave his
oration upon 'The Poetry of Mathematics.'
Possessed equally by two passions often
thought contradictory, in his choice both of
his Commencement theme and of his life
work, he gave full expression to each. Eager
to enter every realm of nature, he selected as
the most attractive of her domains the one in
which Poetry and Science appear as har-
monious allies.

" Wendell had been thinking about the
stars and listening to the ' music of the
spheres ' from early childhood, and perhaps
not later than the beginning of his Sopho-
more year at Bates he had decided to become
an Astronomer. Some of his friends to whom
he announced his choice regarded it as a
passing whim, or ' a young man's fancy.' But
henceforth for him it represented an unflag-
ging and absorbing pursuit.

" The writer well remembers the impression
made by President Cheney's announcement
in the Gymnasium, after the Commencement
Dinner of 1868, that one of the little class
of five about to leave Alma Mater was to be
an Astronomer. On the faces of some present
was written scorn, of others admiration, and
of still others incredulity. But two months
later Wendell was at work in Harvard Col-
lege Observatory — at work with an ardor too
great for his not over firm health. For in

334 LIFE AND WORK OF

. 1869 serious illness, together with the de-
pression and care occasioned by his father's
death, compelled him to resign his position.
It was, however, only when he urged his
request that his resignation was accepted.
Reluctantly he left the Observatory, purpos-
ing to return as soon as he should regain his
health.

" This result, however, was not easily at-
tained ; and for some ten years he found it
necessary to engage in active out-door pur-
suits. During this period he did, indeed,
listen to the urgent request of President
Cheney that he should accept the Professor-
ship of Astronomy at Bates. But failing
health constrained him to return to work in
the open air, and he accepted an appointment
as an Engineer under Mr. James B. Francis
— then an eminent Civil and Hydraulic En-
gineer in Lowell, Mass.

" After holding this position several years,
in February, 1879, having regained his health,
upon the urgent solicitation of the Director
of the Harvard Observatory, he returned to
his much loved work. Since that time there
has been no interruption in his chosen pur-
suit, and since 1898 he has held the position
of Assistant Professor of Astronomy.

" His work at the Observatory has included
observation, original investigation, calcula-
tions, and superintending of calculations.
During the earlier years of his service his
observations were made with the Great
Equatorial Telescope, the Transit Circle, and
two Meridian Photometers. During the last
twenty years he has had sole charge of the

OREN B. CHENEY 335

Great Telescope, has made all the observa-
tions with it, and has superintended the
reductions of these. He took a large part in
measuring with the first Meridian Photometer
the light of 4,260 stars, and in reducing the
more than 94,000 observations required. The
results, which fill Volume 14 of the Obser-
vatory Annals, give the magnitudes of all
stars visible to the naked eye, from the North
Pole down to 35 degrees below the Equator.
With the second and larger Meridian Photo-
meter was measured the light of 21,000 fainter
stars, comprising more than 267,000 observa-
tions. Mr. Wendell himself made nearly one-
half these observations and superintended
nearly all the reductions. The results fill
Volume 24 of the Observatory Annals. The
discussion of these observations, contained in
Volume 23, was also in part, made by Mr.
Wendell. In addition he superintended and
prepared for publication Volume 37 of the
Observatory Annals, containing observations
(partly made by himself) of Variable Stars
and Comparison Stars, and extending over
ten years.

"Of the observations of more than 700
Eclipses of Jupiter's Satellites made during
the twenty-five years from 1878 to 1903 in-
clusive, and contained in Volume 52, Part 1,
just issued, Mr. Wendell made the entire num-
ber for the ten years from 1894 to 1903 in-
clusive, and a part of those taken previous to
that time. He has also observed all the
Eclipses from 1903 to the present time, and
has superintended nearly all the reductions of
these.

336 LIFE AND WORK OF

" In addition to his current observations
he is now doing what he considers his best
work — in reducing all his observations with
the Great Telescope since 1895. The results
will be contained in Volume 49, which he is
now preparing. Mr. Wendell has discovered
a number of Variable Stars, and also the
variability in light of two asteriods, viz. : Iris
and Eunomia. One of his specialties has been
Comets and Meteors. He has not only made
a great many observations on these, but has
also calculated the orbits of a large number,
both of Comets and of Meteors, and has cal-
culated the place in the heavens from which
meteors belonging to different Comets should
radiate.

" Professor Wendell is a member of the fol-
lowing Scientific Societies :

" 1. Fellow of the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences.

" 2. Honorary Member of the Astronomi-
cal Society of Mexico.

"3. Member of the Astronomical and
Astrophysical Society of America.

" 4. Member of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science.

" 5. Member of the National Geographic
Society of Washington.

"6. Member of the M. P. Club (a society
composed of Mathematicians and Physicists
in Boston and Cambridge).

"7. Member of the Boston Scientific
Society.

" During the thirty-nine years since his
graduation, Mr. Wendell's loyalty to Bates
has been steady and intense. He loves to

OREN B. CHENEY 337

visit ' the old familiar places ' and to live over
his college days with all their cherished hopes.
It has been the dream of his Bates friends
and of those most deeply interested in the
College that he should sometime return to his
Alma Mater and preside over the long coveted
observatory that shall, we trust, yet crown
our beautiful Mount David.

" In school, in college, and in life, Mr.
Wendell has been an earnest, consistent, and
active Christian. For him there is no con-
flict between Science and Religion."

Excerpts from President Chase's report for
1906-1907.

THE FUTURE OF BATES DEPENDENT UPON HER
STANDARDS OF CHARACTER AND SCHOLARSHIP

" The reputation of Bates for devotion to
high ideals of character and scholarship has
been the chief factor in promoting her won-
derful growth in numbers and influence.
This reputation must be maintained. Bates
has a distinct individuality, and the attempts
that are sometimes made to introduce
fashions, customs and traditions alien to her
spirit and aims are harmful to her growth
and destructive of her best hopes for the
future. It is the unsolicited testimony of
hundreds of well-known educators that Bates
is a safe College for those who value character
as the highest of human attainments. It is
the well-earned reputation of our College for
'plain living and high thinking' that is
bringing her annually more students than all

338 LIFE AND WORK OF

other causes combined. It has been only by
constant vigilance, and the sacred sense of
responsibility on the part of her Faculty and
friends that this reputation has been gained.
Character, other things being equal, always
contributes to scholarship. The first care of
the Institution should be to maintain and
strengthen that good name which, while
better than great riches, is in the final result
the surest guaranty of Funds, Buildings, —
of material prosperity in all its forms.

" Partly because so many of the students
at Bates are earning their own way, but still
more because of the purpose and spirit of the
College itself, maintained steadily from the
first, Bates is truly a democratic institution.
She knows no social distinctions, no cliques.
In the early days of Bates, one of her admir-
ers was describing the character and aims of
the College to the president of another insti-
tution. ' We are aiming to make it a college
where poor boys can get an education,' he
said. 'But,' rejoined the other, 'we have
poor boys in our institution, too.' 'And are
they on the same social footing as the rich
boys ?' ' Why no, of course not. The rich
fellows go together, and the poor boys keep
by themselves.' .Bates has always remained
true to the purpose with which she began.

HARMONY BETWEEN FACULTY AND STUDENTS

The growing harmony between the Faculty and
the students of Bates is due in large measure to
the devotion of each teacher to the welfare of
every student in the College. It has been the

OREN B. CHENEY 339

mission of Bates to afford opportunities for culture
to hundreds of students that without her aid never
would have made the acquaintance of a college.
These young men and young women freely bring
to their teachers their own wants, difficulties, pri-
vations and fears. Many of them must have em-
ployment in vacations and during term time, in
hours which under other conditions they would
devote to social life and recreation. The need of
a Bates student for remunerative work is the im-
mediate concern of every one of his teachers.
No worthy student can be permitted to leave
college for lack of means till every possible effort
has been made to secure him needed employment.
" How much money must I have, in order to start
upon my college course ?" is a question that the
President of Bates answers scores of times every
year. For some time past systematic efforts have
been made through a committee of the Faculty to
obtain work suited to the needs and powers
of deserving students, with the result that the
long list of services that a student may render in
working his way steadily grows and the prospect
for earnest young men and young women con-
stantly brightens.

Nor is sympathy between students and Faculty
exhausted in efforts to meet these practical
difficulties. There is a large development of com-
mon, social, intellectual, and spiritual interests ;
and the experience of friends older and more

340 LIFE AND WORK OF

mature than themselves is freely drawn upon by
students struggling with the doubts, perplexities
and depressions inevitable to those entering the
larger realms of thought and knowledge.

STUDENT ADVISERS

During the second term of the year a system
was adopted under which each young man is
brought into personal friendly relations with some
member of the Faculty. This system has proved
very helpful in promoting harmony in spirit and
purpose, and, as its merits are further developed,
it is believed that it proves of great value in hold-
ing the College true to the important work of
correcting individual deficiencies in character, of
imparting definite aims and high ideals, and of
aiding each young man to realize his best possi-
bilities.

Bates desires to do the proper work of a small
college ; that is, a college in which each teacher
may have a personal acquaintance with each stu-
dent, and each student with every other student.
With four hundred students or more this result is
not so easily gained as in the Bates of fifteen years
ago, with one-third of the present attendance. But
it is believed that our system of student advisers,
under which every student may have the benefit
of intimate friendship with those of maturer years
and may receive unobtrusive and kindly advice in
regard to courses of study, reading, recreation,

OREN B. CHENEY 341

College associations, and opportunities and plans
for future study and work, will enable our College
even more effectively than ever before, to impart
her best and most inspiring influences to all who
seek her aid. In all her higher efforts Bates has
found the College Y. M. C. A. and Y. W. C. A.
her efficient allies.

ATHLETICS AND PHYSICAL CULTURE

More interest than usual has been taken in
general Physical Culture and in Hygiene, and a
larger number of students than ever before at
Bates have been interested in methodical, health-
ful exercise, under the direction of intelligent
specialists. Bates has made a successful effort to
avoid an error prevalent in colleges— the concen-
tration of the interest of the entire student body
upon intercollegiate contests in which relatively
few can participate.

That, however, there has been due attention to
the more exciting sports and games is shown by
the results obtained in baseball, football, tennis
and track athletics. In football Bates won the
championship last fall in the series of contests
among the four higher Maine institutions of learn-
ing. In baseball she took the second place and
it is but fair to say that a result even more satis-
factory would, doubtless, have been gained had it
not been for the serious and persistent illness of
some of our best athletes.

342 LIFE AND WORK OF

It is believed that a good degree of success has
been obtained in preventing an inordinate interest
in Athletics, and in holding Physical Culture and
Training in proper subordination to the develop-
ment of culture of heart and mind. Bates will not
tolerate poor scholarship for the sake of a good
showing in Athletics. She means to be, and be-
lieves she is, entirely free from anything approach-
ing professionalism in Athletics.

URGENT NEEDS OF BATES
INCREASED ENDOWMENT

Bates still needs a largely increased endowment.
Our success in completing the Carnegie Fund is
but a happy beginning of a work to be continued
until our Professors can be adequately remuner-
ated, additional instructors employed, and an in-
come be assured sufficient to maintain a steady
growth in our Library, the annual purchase of
apparatus for progressive work in our laboratories
and a proper care of our grounds and buildings.
I have already called the attention to our need of
a Professorship of Education. Our growing stu-
dent body requires that as soon as practicable more
teachers shall be employed in the great Depart-
ments of Mathematics and of the Ancient and the
Modern Languages. Additional assistance in
Chemistry, Physics and Biology will greatly in-
crease the value of our work in these subjects.

OREN B. CHENEY 343

At an early day the duties now assigned to one
man as a teacher of History, Economics and
Sociology should engage the attention of at least
two teachers ; and the work'in these Departments
should be at once more specific and more compre-
hensive. To effect these purposes, we need fur-
ther to increase our Fund by the addition of at
least $500,000. Of this amount $50,000 should
be devoted to the Chair of Education, and a
second $50,000 could be wisely used as a per-
manent Fund for the Library.

FURTHER NEEDS

Our last annual Catalogue has summarized our
further needs substantially as follows :

1. $100,000 for the erection and equipment of
Science Buildings ; — $60,000 for a Building for the
Department of Physics, and $40,000 for the De-
partment of Natural History and Biology. A
Building for the Department of Physics cannot be
erected too soon to meet our urgent and growing
needs in this direction.

2. $20,000 for doubling the capacity of the
present Chemical Laboratory. This improvement
should not be delayed a day beyond the time ab-
solutely necessary for effecting it.

3. $10,000 for renovating Science Hall and
thoroughly equipping it as a Dormitory.

4. $5,000 to pay for the furnishing of Coram
Library and to secure additional appliances.

344

LIFE AND WORK OF

5. $150,000 for additional scholarships.

6. $60,000 for the erection and maintenance of
a Gymnasium for our men students. This need
is imperative.

7. $100,000 for the erection and maintenance
of an Astronomical Observatory and the support
of its Director.

8. $50,000 for the erection of a College Chapel.

9. $10,000 for the grading and improvement
of our campus.

10. $20,000 to complete the amount required
for the erection of the New Dormitory.

The present financial condition of the Institu-
tion is shown by the report of the Treasurer, Hon.
F. M. Drew:

During the past fourteen years, the assets of the
College from which our income is derived have
annually increased, as shown by the following
table :

May 31, 1894,

l895>
1896,
1897,
1898,
1899,
1900,
1901,
1902,

I9°3>

1904,

Assets

318,040.58
320,772.08
338,369.69
340,281.10
352>639-33
356>545-32
366,199.47

368,265.82

4°5>525-I5
412,387.97

OREN B. CHENEY 345

May 31, 1905, Assets $421,487.06
" " 1906, " 428,932.77

" " 1907, « 532,352.40

And it will be satisfactory to know that during
these fourteen years nothing has been lost by in-
vestment, and the losses which have come were
from investments made prior to 1894, showing
the care and wisdom which your Executive Board
have exercised in the management of your funds.

Since the report of the Treasurer was published
the assets of Bates have been further increased by
the payment of $50,000 subscribed by the late
Bartlett Doe of San Francisco, thus carrying the
total of the income bearing resources of the Col-
lege, $582,352.40.

L'BRARY OF CONGRESS

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